


Halfway There

by aparticularbandit



Series: The Time of Your Life [3]
Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Soulmate timer Au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:07:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23077519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aparticularbandit/pseuds/aparticularbandit
Summary: In which Rafael's soulmate timer does not suck nearly as bad as Luisa's or Jane's did but still kind of sucks a little bit.
Relationships: Luisa Alver/Jane Villanueva, Luisa Alver/Rose Solano, Petra Solano/Rafael Solano, Petra Solano/Roman Zazo
Series: The Time of Your Life [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1499849
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Soulmate Timer Au Fic #3 of what is currently planned to be 5!
> 
> Just a short recap in terms of what we have seen/the characters believe in terms of their soulmate timers:  
> 1) Rose's timer went off when she met Elena and then when she and Luisa first kissed.  
> 2) Rose's half-brother's timer went off for her. No one is happy about this.  
> 3) Luisa timer went off the day her mother "died" (she believes this is a glitch), the first time she had alcohol (she jokes that alcohol is her soulmate), and when she first saw Rose.  
> 4) Jane's timer went off the day the narrator started to speak into her head (she believes this is a glitch) and when she first saw Luisa.
> 
> This particular fic deals with Raf's soulmate timer as far as backstory is concerned and starts dealing with the aftermath of Jane being artificially inseminated. There are new shenanigans! It's exciting!
> 
> ALSO NOTE that just because a ship is tagged as being in the fic, that does not mean that it is a series endgame ship - or even a fic endgame ship. It just means that said ship gets explored in the context of this particular fic.
> 
> OKAY COOL ENJOY HAVE FUN!

Despite everything that might have suggested such a thing could not happen, Rafael Solano slept through the first time his soulmate timer went off. The bright white flash didn’t wake him, and when he finally opened his eyes and rubbed them with one tiny fist, he noticed the glow of the infamous **00:00:00:00:00** with eyes that steadily grew wider. He jumped out of his racecar bed and ran on bare feet to his mother’s room under the hope that she would be able to explain what had happened, and when no one answered, he rushed to his sister’s room.

Luisa answered where his mother didn’t and comforted him for an event he hadn’t even been aware had happened.

The numbers on his wrist ticked back upwards as he rushed around the house, searching for a mother who was no longer there. All he found were presents and balloons and cake and ice cream and a father with hands shoved into his back pockets and a stern look on his face that Rafael had only ever seen when he had done something wrong. He didn’t know what he’d done this time. No, he _hadn’t_ done anything wrong this time. It wasn’t his fault that his timer had—

Then he noticed that the numbers were moving again. His brow furrowed.

It was a nightmare.

This was a nightmare.

When his sister found him in his bed again later, Rafael curled up against her and buried his head in her chest. She told him his long hair looked nice. He wanted his mother.

Three days later he cut all of his hair off.

* * *

Rafael took a drink of his ice cold lemonade and then placed it back down on the table, one finger tracing through the condensation collecting on the outside of the glass. He twisted his hand so that he could see the inside of his wrist, gaze focusing on the numbers still steadily counting down.

Less than a year now. Petra would need to be gone by then.

Now, to anyone listening who didn’t live in a world with soulmate timers, this would sound heartless, but in a world where a lot of people like himself were waiting on a timer to count down but still wanted to be with someone until that time, marriages were often arranged out of convenience and not necessarily out of love. Sometimes it was financial, sometimes it wasn’t. Sometimes it was simply to have a warm body to lie next to while you slept, to have someone to remind you that you weren’t really alone, even if you hadn’t met your soulmate yet.

Rafael’s father, as much as Rafael hated to admit it, had suggested the idea to him. The owner of the hotel conglomerate of which Rafael’s hotel, The Marbella, was a part actually went through such _convenient_ marriages often. Most of his wives were only around for one or two years, paid well not just by the lifestyle they were afforded as the great Emilio Solano’s wife but also by the contract – it was, after all, some of the best years of their youth he was stealing from them, but since they couldn’t share them with their _actual_ soulmate, there was no reason to not spend them with a man willing to pay such a high price for them. Growing up, Rafael had hated the practice, had hated the new wives without reason, and had refused to have anything to do with them more than he was forced into, but now—

It wasn’t as though he _agreed_ with the practice, but there was something nice about having someone with him. And it wasn’t as though he _disliked_ his wife. He loved her as much as he could love anyone who wasn’t his soulmate. But that was the problem – she wasn’t his soulmate.

He wasn’t hers, either. She’d agreed to it. And she’d agreed to leave by the allotted time. He’d pay well for it. That, too, was part of their agreement, their marriage contract. Besides, after they were divorced, she’d find someone else. That was the fate of anyone whose timer zeroed out and who was no longer with their soulmate.

His sister, Luisa, might be a good option. She seemed to get along well enough with Petra, and she didn’t have a soulmate of her own to spend her time with. Of course, she’d made mention of _complications_ surrounding the last time her timer went off, but a few years later—

_Oh, yeah._

Her wife.

Ex-wife.

They were splitting now anyway. He’d _heard_ about that. It’d been impossible to _not_ hear about it.

Luisa deserved better than that. Petra wasn’t really _better_ , but she was _something_. Then again, he didn’t think Petra was really _into_ women.

So bad idea.

Maybe someone else.

Maybe it was a bad idea to try and set up his soon-to-be ex-wife with someone else. Especially someone else in his family.

Besides, whoever it was Petra ended up with, there was no reason to believe that their relationship would last either. Rafael knew from experience, from running his thumb around the timer and across the lack of numbers, that her soulmate timer had zeroed out a long time ago, long before she’d met him. If she wasn’t with her soulmate now, and if her timer hadn’t reset by now, then there was no reason to believe she would end up with one of her own. Once zeroed out as Petra’s was, soulmate timers rarely restarted again.

And non-soulmate relationships weren’t made to last.

Rafael picked at the numbers ticking down on his wrist again. It was a habit – albeit a bad one – that he’d picked up from his sister, who often picked at the dashes embedded in her own wrist as though doing so would turn them into something other than what they were. Hers were a much starker silver against her skin, more like burn scars than numbers, and some vain part of him wondered if they would look the same way in his own wrist once his zeroed out, after the bright white glow that would hold in his skin for the first twenty-four hours had faded away into nothing and the zeros turned to dashes.

Not for the first time, Rafael began to wonder what his soulmate would look like. Would she be blonde, the same way Petra was? Would she be a redhead, like his stepmother was? Or would she be a brunette, like his sister was? Considering those options, he _hoped_ she would be blonde. A brown-eyed blonde. That would be nice.

Any soulmate at all would be nice.

Anything other than what happened the _first_ time his timer went off.

Rafael pushed his hand through his hair before returning it to the cool of his drink. His timer indicated that somewhere between five and ten minutes had passed since he’d gotten his drink, somewhere between ten and fifteen since he’d arrived. He would give her another ten minutes. Work might have been running late. That could happen at a clinic, right?

“ _Raf!_ ”

His sister’s arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind, and she rested his head on his shoulder, snuggling against him. He could smell her perfume – honey and cinnamon – like she’d always just come from cooking soapapillas and not from shoving her hands up a bunch of women’s—

“Is that for me?” Luisa asked as she finally let him go, picking his drink up and dragging it over to her side of the table. She took a quick gulp then winced, pursing her lips, as she shoved it back across to him. “That’s _nasty_.” Her lips smacked together. “I’m gonna get something else. Let your big sis show you the right drinks to order.” She waved one hand in the air. “ _Garcon!_ ”

Raf rubbed his forehead with one hand. “Be nice to the waitstaff. _Please._ Or tip well.”

“I always tip well.”

_Liar._

One of the waitresses – one of the older ones – not _older_ , she’d just been there _longer_ , one of the old guard and not one of the ones Zaz had added in as soon as he’d been officially part of the staff himself – came over to their table, her hands clasped together. "Can I help you?”

Luisa hesitated.

That was enough to cause Rafael to glance up. The waitress had to be at least passably pretty for Luisa to pause like that. His eyes took her in, from the uniform to the dark hair to the nametag that proclaimed her to be _Jane_. Not bad, but nothing to make his sister freeze like that. His eyes shifted to her. “Something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing’s wrong.” Luisa took a deep breath and shook her head. “Just…not thirsty.” She smiled, but it was that awkward one that she always wore when she was doing something that she wasn’t supposed to be doing or hiding something that she didn’t want to tell him _or secretly on a bender that wasn’t so secret because she would reek of alcohol_ – which, fortunately, she didn’t right now, so that only left one of the other two options.

It was too early in the day to be thinking about this.

And by too early in the day, he meant _not late enough to drink about it_.

“Get her some water,” Rafael said, rolling his eyes. “She really shouldn’t be drinking anything else.”

Luisa flinched, and for a moment, Rafael thought he saw the waitress’s knuckles grow white where her hands were clasped together. He glanced up. The waitress seemed about to say something then thought better of it as she met his eyes. She smiled instead. “I’ll get some water.” Her voice sounded cracked.

 _What’s with her?_ Rafael watched as she walked away. He’d have Zaz look into it later. Actually, he’d find someone else to look into it later. Zaz would just take that as permission to sleep with her, and that would be a PR nightmare. _Petra_ could go look into it. She was just as invested in the hotel as—

No, she wasn’t. _Rose_ was. And she had a much softer manner.

He’d send Rose.

“You could pick a better rebound,” Rafael said, leaning back against his chair. Not quite comfortable, not quite uncomfortable. Good enough.

Luisa’s head snapped up, her eyes widened, and then they narrowed as she reached across and slapped his arm. “That’s what the lawyer’s for!”

Rafael couldn’t help but chuckle. “Dad taught _you_ well.”

“Not my fault if she thinks I’m cute. It was _her_ idea, by the way.” Luisa crossed her arms with a smug grin. She nodded to the timer on his wrist. “How’s the waiting?”

“I still have a few months.” Rafael groaned and rubbed his hands through his hair. “I wish I’d meet her sooner.”

“Or him.”

“ _Her._ ” Rafael was firm on this point. There was absolutely no way his timer would go off for another guy. Absolutely not. And if it did, he would assume it was a glitch and continue on with his life the way he already had. Not having a soulmate might suck, but it was better than being paired up with someone he would never be attracted to.

Not that there was anything wrong with that. It just wasn’t for him.

Luisa shrugged. “You never know. Timers can be really fickle.” She offered the waitress a grin as she returned with her glass of water. “Thank you, Jane.”

“You’re welcome.”

Rafael noticed as the waitress’s eyes shifted from Luisa to him with a questioning expression that seemed to disappear entirely as soon as she caught him staring at her. Then it was replaced with a smile not quite as awkward as Luisa’s could be, and she walked off, tightening her hands on the edges of her dress. He turned back to his sister. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had something going on with her.”

“Would you care if I did?”

“It’d be another PR nightmare—”

“Not as bad as Zazu with—”

“ _Don’t bring it up._ ” Rafael pushed his hands through his hair again and laughed before meeting his sister’s eyes. “You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?”

The easy amusement on Luisa’s face froze. She set her glass back down on the table with a soft clink, looked away briefly – Rafael thought, just the smallest bit, that she was meeting eyes with someone else behind him, but he thought better of turning back to look – and then met his eyes again. “You have to _promise_ not to be mad at me.”

All of the cheer fell from his face and was replaced almost immediately with animosity. “What did you do this time?”

* * *

Rose had said to make sure and pinpoint _Petra_ as the issue here. It would be the easiest and most effective way to stay in her brother’s good graces while he worked through everything. The problem was that while Luisa completely and one hundred percent agreed with her soulmate, she couldn’t exactly just throw Petra under the bus.

Well. She _could_. But she wouldn’t. She didn’t hate Petra that much.

Notably, Luisa didn’t think Rose hated Petra either. She knew better. Rose didn’t really _hate_ anybody. She just didn’t make very strong connections with them, and it was far easier to shift the blame elsewhere than to let it fall squarely on her shoulders. Rose was a pragmatist. (Rose was a _sociopath_.) While Luisa had significant moral quandaries over throwing everything onto Petra’s shoulders, Rose wouldn’t. _Didn’t._

Still.

Luisa ran one finger in a ring around the lip of her glass, listening to the soft sound as she watched her brother’s face. He’d inherited a rage she’d only seen on their father when her mother was still alive, but while their dad had learned to tame his and use it in business meetings when absolutely necessary, Rafael still struggled with it. His elbow rested on the table, his hand clenching so tight that his vein popped under his skin, and his teeth gritted together.

“Raf—”

“ _Don’t._ ” His white hot rage turned on her, and Luisa flinched. It didn’t matter that she knew he wouldn’t hurt _her_ , especially not in a public place, _especially not in the Marbella in front of all of these customers_. All of that force still frightened her. It took another few minutes before he was able to speak at all, and even then, it was in short, jilting phrases. “Petra tried to use my sperm sample.”

It wasn’t a question, but Luisa knew better than to not answer. “Yes.”

“You used it on the wrong person.”

Luisa swallowed once. “Yes, which you’ll find is actually the _best_ option here, because—”

“She’s keeping the kid,” Rafael interrupted.

“She’s giving the kid _to you_.” Luisa brushed her hand quickly through her hair, and her gaze shifted to her glass of water. It was almost empty, condensation from the Miami heat pooling underneath it as it ran down the glass. She picked it up and took a drink, forcing herself to swallow before continuing. “I know it’s not the best situation—”

“That was meant for _my soulmate_.”

Luisa took a deep breath. “We couldn’t have refrozen it after Petra had them thaw it out. Would you rather _she_ had the kid?”

Rafael glared at her. “I’d rather not be in this situation at all.”

“What would you have wanted me to do?” Luisa couldn’t keep the strain out of her voice. “Just let it _die_?”

She watched as her brother took a deep breath. It didn’t seem to help him at all. It hadn’t really helped _her_ , either, but sometimes those sort of cliché actions were worth a shot. They might not always work, but every now and again, they did. Her brother’s nostrils flared. She wanted to laugh at him the way she had when they were kids and then pull him into her arms and ruffle his hair and help him calm down, but that wasn’t the sort of thing she could do in public and that wasn’t really the sort of thing she felt comfortable doing with him anymore. Or _she_ felt comfortable, but she felt like she was intruding on some version of himself that he was trying to create.

It didn’t matter.

“There wasn’t a good option, Raf—”

“Don’t act like you made a _choice_ here, Luisa.”

His eyes shifted, and Luisa followed them to the silver numbers etched into his wrist, still quietly counting down. His third chance. Maybe his final one. She’d been there the first time to calm him down, and she’d been there shortly before the second time to try and prepare him (or wake him up). Neither of them had led to a true soulmate the way he wanted and the way most of the world expected.

The third time had been the charm for her (if it could be called that), so she hoped it would be for him, too.

Rafael suddenly slammed his hand down on the table top and stood, taking another deep breath. “I need to go.” He stared at her, his face a frozen mask trying to contain his still bubbling fury. “ _Alone._ ” He gestured to his drink. “You can take care of this, at least?”

Luisa nodded once and watched as her brother strode off. She could only hope that his wife was occupied with something more pressing so that he could have more time to cool off before encountering her. Maybe she should call—

“Are you okay?”

All of a sudden, Jane was there, pulling out the chair across from her where Rafael had previously been sitting and scooting it closer to her before sitting on it herself. She clasped her hands together in her lap and leaned forward, eyes searching hers.

“Yes,” Luisa lied.

“Are you sure?” Jane asked, her eyes moving from Luisa’s face to where she’d begun to run her finger in a ring around the lip of her glass again, wincing at the echoing sound.

“Oh!” Luisa pulled her hand back from the glass. “Sorry, it’s a nervous habit. _Miss Congeniality._ I used to think she was super hot when she did the glass thing, so I picked it up. I think most people just find it annoying. _And I’m rambling again._ ” She sighed and brushed her hand through her hair again. “I’m fine,” she lied again. “Raf’s just mad. It’s understandable. _I’d_ be mad, too, you know, if _I_ were him, and I’m sure you understand what he’s feeling better than anyone, since you’re stuck in this situation, too, and—” She tried to take a stabilizing breath. This time it helped. “I’m sorry.”

“That was him?” Jane turned to look behind her, as though trying to catch a glimpse of Rafael, who’d already long since departed. “That was your brother?”

Luisa nodded. “That’s Raf. He’s honestly not that bad once you get to know him. He went through a really rough patch a few years ago, and he’s been _a lot_ better since then.” She reached out and grabbed Jane’s hands, staring straight into her eyes. “ _Promise me you won’t look him up online._ ” Then, on seeing Jane’s face, she groaned. “You’re going to go look now, aren’t you? I mean, _I would_ after hearing something like that. It’s like clickbait. But worse! I shouldn’t have said anything at all.”

“Luisa, calm down.” Jane twisted her hands so that she could hold Luisa’s and gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Her voice sounded like she thought otherwise. “Besides, it’s not like I don’t already know him, so—”

“You know him?” Luisa couldn’t stop herself from asking. Then she shook her head. “Of course, you know him. You work here.” She groaned and leaned forward. “I’m so stupid.”

“Hey. _Hey!_ ”

Luisa looked back up and stared at Jane as the other woman leaned forward, squeezing her hand again. “You are _not_ stupid. You just made a mistake. You are allowed a mistake!”

“Coming from the person who has to deal with the consequences of that mistake—”

“You’re my soulmate. I’d have to deal with the consequences anyway.” Jane leaned back as Luisa took her hand from hers, sitting up a little straighter. She looked in the direction Rafael had left and sighed, hesitating before saying, “He was just my first kiss. _Kind of_ a big deal, you know?”

Luisa’s mouth dropped open. Then her eyes shifted away, sparkling merrily with mischief. She almost felt like herself again. “Oh, I will _get him_ for that. Me being a PR nightmare my _ass_ if he’s running around kissing his staff—”

“No, no, no, it was years ago!” Jane held up her hands as she interrupted her. “He probably doesn’t even remember me.” She brushed her hair out of her face. “He _definitely_ doesn’t remember me.”

“Probably not,” Luisa said before noticing the same nervous habits she had displayed on Jane’s face. She took a deep breath and tried, quickly, to smooth it over. “No offense, but he’s—”

“— _a guy_ ,” they said in unison. Jane brushed her hair back again. “Yeah, I got that. Definitely a dude.” She tried to smile.

It was then that Luisa became aware that Jane might have – some time, not even recently, but at one moment – had a crush on her brother. Well, _of course_ , she had a crush on her brother. For a guy, he was attractive. She could recognize that from an unbiased and definitely not attracted to him perspective. Girls thought he was cute. _Her friends_ had thought he was cute. It was the muscles, probably. And the charm. Certainly not that _rage_ thing, but he usually didn’t show that around girls.

 _And he had kissed her_ , which couldn’t have helped things at all.

_Oh, this was the perfect opportunity._

“Ok, but you’ve kissed both of us,” Luisa started suddenly, and she leaned in, her lips spreading in a smug grin. “Which one is the better kisser? And _don’t_ say me just because I’m your soulmate. That’s not fair. You have to be honest.”

Jane opened her mouth and then stopped, quickly glancing back over to the bar. Luisa followed her gaze and noticed Zazu standing there, staring at both of them. It was all too easy to give him a grin and wave at him, even though she could feel the animosity directed at her even from here. It was the _Zazu_ thing, honestly. Ever since Raf had introduced Roman Zazo to her, she couldn’t help calling him that, and now that he was working under her brother, it was even harder to get that image of the little bird hopping around after the little lion, giving updates over everything that was happening, out of her head. He wasn’t really that sort of person, _but she couldn’t help it_. The image was stuck.

Luisa turned back to Jane. “He’s a _horrible_ boss, isn’t he? I _told_ Raf that hiring his best friend was a shitty idea, but he doesn’t listen to me when it comes to any sort of business decisions. Rose wouldn’t interfere with it either; she thinks it’s too much to ask him, when really she’s more involved with the interior design aspects, and—”

_Rose._

Luisa’s eyes widened. She hadn’t meant to mention Rose. Abort, abort, abort. “Is he riding you about taking too many breaks?” she asked, continuing on as if she hadn’t flubbed that at all. “Because I can talk to him, and he’ll leave you alone.”

Thankfully, Jane didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she didn’t mention it. Instead, she just shook her head. “No, I really should get back to work. Lina’s on her break now, so there’s less of us.” She smiled and stood, taking Raf’s glass. “Do you want me to take yours, or do you want to continue that ringing bit?”

“No, no, I’m good,” Luisa said, blushing. “Here.” She fished in her purse for her wallet as she waited for the heat in her cheeks to fade, but Jane placed a hand on her shoulder. “ _No_ ,” Luisa said immediately, not looking up, “you are _not_ paying for my brother’s drink. Not after he was in one of his moods.” She pulled her cash out and met Jane’s eyes. “Here. I’ve got it. And I’ll tip—”

“Please don’t tip.”

Luisa’s brow furrowed as she held the cash out in the air. “Why not?”

Jane glanced away. “It would feel really weird, having my soulmate tip.” She grimaced but took the cash. “Actually, this whole situation is _really_ weird and _really_ complicated. You tipping would be the least of it.”

“It’s just money,” Luisa said. “Besides, don’t deprive yourself of a Luisa Alver tip. I’m a medical doctor, my dad owns a _conglomerate_ of hotels, and my brother _runs_ one. I’d tip well even if I wasn’t your soulmate.” She gave Jane a quick once over and smiled. “Especially since you’re pretty.”

Jane groaned and rolled her eyes, but a smile lit up her face anyway. “You are _so_ gay.”

“And _your_ soulmate.” Luisa offered her a smug smile. Then she stood and kissed Jane’s cheek. “Thank you for coming to cheer me up.”

“Actually, I was coming to get these,” Jane lifted Rafael’s drink and Luisa’s cash, “but if I was able to cheer you up—”

Luisa gave Jane a little shove. “Here,” she said, picking up her glass. “I’ll walk with you. I want to talk to Zazu anyway. He’s got some explaining to do.”

“Explaining?” Jane’s eyebrows rose. Then she shook her head, and if her hands weren’t full, Luisa was sure she would have waved them out in front of her. “No, no, I don’t want to know.” She smiled. “It was good to see you.”

“You, too.” Luisa leaned over to kiss her cheek again as they parted, then she turned to track down Zazu. She was certain she’d heard him shacking up with someone earlier – she’d stayed in bed a little later since she’d decided to take the day off, considering her conversation with her brother, and while they’d definitely been trying to be quiet, she couldn’t help but overhear them. The walls between most of the Marbella rooms really _were_ that thin. Unfortunately.

Even without that, though, Luisa was unnaturally good at finding these things out somehow, and right now, it was time to turn that nature to her brother’s best friend. She needed something to distract herself with, after all. Getting him to give up the name of his new girlfriend shouldn’t be too hard.

Not for her, anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

There were no such things as empty moments. Rose knew that full well; she’d been trained with that in mind. Each moment could be used to further a plan, to refine it, to make sure that everything was going exactly as it was mean to be going. Right now, however, there wasn’t much more she _could_ check. The changes to the Marbella she’d added were going as planned – the new stairwell, the secret rooms farther down that could only be accessed by fingerprint scanner (currently only hers would allow access, but she would need to add her surgeon in soon as well), the corridors that led out into the new expansion—

Everything was going according to plan.

Rose took a deep breath and let it out. There wasn’t much time left – her current marriage contract with Emilio would only last for another year, and while she knew he preferred her company, as he’d already extended their marriage years longer than the women he’d used before her, she knew there was only so long he would keep her. Another two or three years at most before he began to look for someone younger, someone _lesser_ , and by then she would need to make sure that everything was in place for the next part of her plan.

She had time.

A little bit of time, at the very least, and a little bit was all she would need.

The gardens at the Marbella were always filled with what could be considered a low hum at this time of day. Visitors and customers were attracted to the flowers – none of them too exotic or in need of too much attention; Emilio wanted to walk the fine line of _draw the customer in_ and _not spend more money than necessary doing it_ – and it was their voices as they talked, their footsteps as they walked, the soft rustle of bright green leaves in the hot, humid air that built the constant lull of noise in the background. Nothing too specific to be drawn out unless she wanted to pay attention to it (she didn’t), and all just loud enough that she could slip through unnoticed.

It was as Rose made her way through the garden, heading towards the Marbella proper, that she noticed her stepson sitting on one of the stone benches hidden in its many pathways, his head resting in his hands. That couldn’t be good. It certainly wasn’t good in terms of reputation; now that Rafael was _the face of the Marbella_ , customers would recognize him and assume that his stance meant there was something wrong with the hotel. People were that stupid. Someone else might hesitate to admit it, but Rose didn’t. She knew it well enough. Not that she would say it aloud. People didn’t like to hear that they were stupid, regardless of the fact that it was quite true; they tended to do far better when they were reminded of their good points – or at least what they _considered_ their good points.

Best not to ignore her stepson when he was obviously in a bad state of mind. Luisa would be better at this – it was in her soulmate’s nature to reach out to Rafael, to _anyone_ , really, when they seemed to be in dire straits – where for Rose it was often feigned or learned, but since she was the one here—

Luisa would be proud of her…and it would show her to be a better stepmother than her own soulmate of a stepmother had been.

Points in her favor.

…not that anyone was keeping _score_.

“Rafael?” Rose stepped into his alcove of the garden, sculpting her face into an expression of concern. “Are you okay?”

 _Are you okay_ , focusing on _him_ and _his_ feelings, not _is something wrong_ , focusing on the externals and what he – or someone else – might have done. Word choice. No one _really_ paid attention to it, but subconsciously, it would stick. Maybe.

Rafael glanced up at her voice, and she could see the inside of his right wrist, where his timer was steadily ticking downwards. Less than a year left. “Rose?” he asked. Then his eyes narrowed, his jaw working against itself. “Did Luisa send you?”

Rose’s brow furrowed. “No.” She stepped forward and moved to sit next to him on the stone bench. When he didn’t move away from her, she reached over, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” she asked again, searching his eyes. “What happened with you two?”

As if she didn’t already know and couldn’t guess.

“She didn’t tell you?” Rafael’s expression was incredulous at best, disbelieving at worst.

Rose couldn’t – and hadn’t – hidden her easy friendship with her soulmate. Even if she was meant to be Luisa’s stepmother, it had only seemed right for a woman of her age to at least attempt friendship with her family members of a similar age. Her friendship with Rafael had always been tentative, but as he seemed to learn that her business sense was impeccable, he’d grown to trust her. When he had begun to pursue his current wife, it had been Luisa who set up parties for the three of them – shopping days, bar crawls (where she hadn’t had anything, although Petra and Rose often had). To an outside viewer, such as Rafael was, they would seem tight as thieves, and while that was certainly true of Rose and her soulmate, when it came to Petra….

She hadn’t quite cracked that nut yet. Neither of them had. Then again, Rose wasn’t particularly trying.

Her head tilted ever so slightly to one side, and she shook it. “Tell me what?”

Rafael took a deep breath and looked away from her, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees once more. “She got a stranger pregnant.”

Rose didn’t say anything but let her expression become that of someone who was trying to puzzle out what her stepson had said, as though it didn’t make any sense to her at all. She opened her mouth, pretending that she was about to say something, knowing that he would interrupt her before any words could come out.

He did.

“Petra wanted to use my sperm sample to try and get pregnant again.” Rafael pushed his hands through his hair and then clenched them into fists. “Luisa mixed up the rooms and used it on the wrong woman. She didn’t even know it was mine until she saw Petra in the other room.”

Rose nodded slowly, pretend to finally start to understand what he was saying. “This other woman,” she said, tentative, “does she know? Or did Luisa tell you first?”

“She knows. Luisa told her, and she’s keeping it, and she’s going to give it to me.” Rafael took a deep breath and let it out. As he did, he seemed to collapse a little bit. “I don’t know what to do, what to _think_.” He laughed, but there wasn’t any amusement in it. “I don’t even know who I’m the most frustrated with. I’m just,” and he slammed one of his hands on the stone bench between them, “ **mad**.”

Rose jumped – not because she was afraid, but because she knew that to do otherwise would seem wrong to the man child next to her. He immediately reached over and placed his hand on her bare shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

_You didn’t._

She couldn’t – _wouldn’t_ – say that.

Rose took Rafael’s hand between both of her own. “Talk it through,” she said, trying to keep her voice quiet. “When I was a lawyer,” she continued, letting her eyes move up to meet Rafael’s again, “some of my clients came to me as the result of a complicated business situation. We couldn’t sue everyone involved, so we had to pinpoint the person who was most at fault.” _And who we thought we would beat…or who would do the most damage to the company._ “Talking it through helped.”

As she spoke, Rafael seemed to listen to her advice, and when she finished, he nodded once. “Luisa…this isn’t the first time,” he said, looking away, “that she’s mixed things up at work. I’m just another victim of her mistakes. I guess I should have expected that, at some point, it would come back to bite me.” He sighed. “It’s probably _good_ that the mix up was with me and not someone else.” His hands clenched again. “But Petra...Petra went behind my back.” He turned to Rose, but he wasn’t really looking at her. “She _knew_ I was saving that sample for my soulmate. They must have told her that she couldn’t change her mind, that it couldn’t be refrozen, so she…she put Luisa in a situation where, no matter what she did, I would be upset with her. With _both_ of them.”

She waited for him to come to the correct conclusion.

“Even if Luisa hadn’t done anything wrong.”

_There you go._

Rose rubbed her thumb gentle across the back of Rafael’s hand. “It sounds like you’ve made up your mind.”

Rafael took his hand from Rose’s and reached for something – a drink, maybe – although there wasn’t anything there for him to take. He rubbed his forehead. “Is there any way you can convince Luisa to find another job?” His hands gripped the edge of the stone bench. “This…everything that’s wrong with her,” he glanced up briefly, looking up at the sky again, “it’s not good for her to be in a job where making a mistake – _any_ mistake – can have these sorts of consequences.”

_You expect her to make a mistake._

“I believe the best of my sister—”

_Liar._

“—but this is a step too far.”

“I’ll talk to her.”

“Thanks.” Rafael stood, wiped his hands on his tight white pants ( _you can take the man out of the playboy, but you can’t take the playboy out of the man_ ), and turned to her again. “And there’s…one of the waitresses.” He waved his hand in the air in a manner that she was sure he’d picked up from his father, and she felt sick. “She seems to have a thing with Luisa—”

Rose’s jaw clenched, but Rafael didn’t notice it.

“—or something, _something_ seems to be wrong with her. Will you check into that for me?” Rafael gave her a sheepish grin that might have been attractive if his sister had been wearing it but didn’t do anything for her on him. “I’d ask Zaz, but given his history—”

“It wouldn’t end well.” Rose smiled and nodded once. Hiring his ex-roommate best friend was perhaps one of the worst business decisions Rafael had made since taking over the hotel, primarily because Roman Zazo had no real business in any position where he could spend the entire time flirting inappropriately with his female employees. Of course, it was always nice to have another contact closer to Rafael than she was, should she need better tabs on his emotional state than he revealed around her or to his sister, but she looked forward to the day when she could dispose of Zazo just like she’d disposed of other unsatisfactory contracts.

—or _not_ like the others, given Luisa’s ban on _killing_. She could find a way around that.

Rafael nodded. “I thought it could use a more feminine touch.”

_Hah._

“I can talk to your waitress,” Rose said, standing and brushing the dust from her floral skirt. “What’s her name?”

Rafael hesitated for a moment. Either he didn’t know her name or he’d forgotten it, which, considering his situation, would almost be considered normal. But if he was going to ask her to look into one of his employees for him, then the least he could do would be to remember her—

“Jane,” he said, finally. “Her name was Jane.”

Rose couldn’t stop the small, imperceptible smile from creeping across her face. “Of course,” she said. “Of course, I can talk to Jane.”

* * *

Rafael glanced at the timer etched into his wrist as he sat down at the bar in his personal suite, a glass of something stronger than his sister should drink in his hand. Despite everything else that was going on, there was something comforting in the fact that it was still counting down, the milliseconds a whir at the far end, nothing more than a blur that he could occasionally pull a number from if he stared at it long enough. He couldn’t do that now if he tried, though. Even the seconds seemed to be blurring together.

Once, a few years ago, his timer had frozen altogether. At the time, it seemed like everything else was going well, so while it had given him pause for concern, he’d mostly put it out of his mind, hiding it under long-sleeved shirts so that no one who didn’t already know could notice it. It only started again about a year and a half ago, after a blinding flash that would otherwise have suggested it zeroed out, in what Luisa had said must have been a reset.

He still wasn’t sure if he believed her, but it seemed like the best explanation for what had happened.

Rafael lifted his glass to his lips again, eyes bleary as the door to his suite opened and shut. There was only one person that could be, and he didn’t much want to talk to her right now. Anything – _everything_ – he said would just be….

“Rafael?” His backstabbing wife’s voice filled with some fake sort of concern as she caught sight of him, drinking, alone, at their bar. She moved next to him and placed her hand between his shoulder blades. “Is something wrong?”

His eyes narrowed, and he finished his drink but didn’t have the heart to slam it on the counter. Maybe earlier he might have reacted that way, but right now, he was too tired. “Luisa told me,” he said, and he felt his wife’s hand tense on his back.

At least she had the good sense not to play the fool.

“It was a mistake,” Petra said, stepping backwards as he turned toward her. “I thought that—”

“—you would use my child – _my child_ – to keep making money off of me after we were divorced.” Rafael’s teeth gritted together. “You knew I would still want to be in their life because they would be the only one I could ever have and you—”

“—wasted it, yes.” Petra’s eyes didn’t meet his. “It’s been…it hasn’t been quite two weeks, but it feels different. Last time, I was sick almost immediately after, but this time….”

She continued, but Rafael wasn’t paying any attention. No, he was focused on something else, something that seemed to him to be far more important. He knew more than she did. Petra…and he struggled to formulate the thought through the growing haze in his mind…Petra didn’t know that Luisa had mixed up the rooms. Luisa had lied to her. _Convincingly_ lied to her, which was almost more surprising.

He could use this.

Rafael looked up, noticed that Petra had just finished whatever excuse she had been giving, and shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said. Then he shoved his tumbler across the counter; it fell into the sink with a sharp clunk. “I’m going to bed.” He gave her a look that suggested he didn’t want her to follow him.

Now all he needed to do was figure out how to use what he knew to his favor. If Petra was willing to jeopardize his future just to extort more money from him, then he was more than willing to turn that scheme back against her. He just had a few decisions to make first and a lawyer to contact. Thankfully, he knew one of the best, albeit retired, lawyers in Miami.


	3. Chapter 3

Rafael picked at the silver script of his timer as he stood outside the door to his sister’s suite, waiting for her to answer the door. When she’d first moved in two weeks ago, he’d only had this smaller suite set up for her; it had been intended to be one that she and her wife, Allison, could share whenever they needed a change of scenery and so didn’t include things that Luisa wanted for her now extended stay. He was supposed to have gotten her another – larger – suite by now, but he kept forgetting. It wasn’t exactly the top of his priority list. Besides, he enjoyed listening to Zaz complain about her hours and overhearing whoever she was using as a rebound through the thin Marbella walls.

And, of course, the unraveling of his sister’s marriage only a few short months after she’d eloped only proved what he’d been told his entire life – marriages between those who weren’t soulmates weren’t made to last. The less he had to think about that, the better.

He picked at his timer again. Whoever his soulmate was, they didn’t have much longer to wait before they found each other. Less than a year left after what felt like an eternity of waiting. She would just have to accept that they couldn’t have children, that he already – or shortly after their meeting – would have another child from another woman.

But, then, whoever the timer chose for him would be his soulmate. Of course, she would understand.

There was some shuffling behind the door, a startled sound followed by muffled voices, and Rafael crossed his arms. “I can come back later if you’re busy,” he said just loud enough to be heard on the other side, and there were running footsteps towards him before the door opened.

“No, no, we’re—” Luisa glanced back with that awkward grin she wore when something was wrong but she knew better than to express it. “ _I’m_ ,” she corrected, “ready for you.” She held the door open wide and gestured for Rafael to come inside before letting it slip shut behind him.

Rafael met Rose’s eyes across the room. He wasn’t entirely surprised to find their stepmother here. Her clothes were a little more ruffled and wrinkled than normal, but that could have been a style choice just as much as anything else. His father preferred her in clothes that fit her more exactly; she had a tendency to wear looser fitting clothes when he wasn’t around. As he watched, Rose pulled at the edge of her white skirt before picking a piece of lint off of it.

Luisa crossed behind him and sat on the couch next to Rose with a much more relaxed grin. But she sat a little too close – Rose scooted away only a few seconds later, and Luisa’s grin faded. “Raf,” she started, her eyes shifting from him to Rose and back again all at once, “Rose was just telling me about, um, legal options for everything that’s going on.” She froze and took a deep breath. “It looks like as long as the other woman doesn’t, um,” her eyes shifted to Rose, “doesn’t sue me or bring it up then, um, I should be able to keep practicing and there won’t be any legal issues and we should be,” she let out the breath and tried to relax, “fine.”

 _What?_ Rafael’s eyes shifted to Rose, whose own eyes widened a bit and glanced briefly to Luisa as her head tilted in her direction. Right. He’d interrupted them. She’d probably been just about to try to convince her to give up her medical practice. Fine. His gaze returned to Luisa, and he unclenched his jaw. “Good. That’s good, Luisa.” Then he pulled out one of the chairs from her little table and sat down sideways on it, clasping his hands together. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”

“Something else?” Luisa’s eyes widened, and her gaze moved from him to Rose and back again, just as it had before. “What else is there to talk about? I’ve been making sure that—”

“You haven’t told Petra.”

Luisa blinked. Her smile – frozen as it was – began to fade. “ _No-o_ ,” she said, lengthening the word into two. “I,” she glanced to Rose, “I thought it was better to tell you first.” She swallowed and turned back to him. “After talking with Ja—” She stumbled on the word. “—with the other woman, who I can’t tell you about, because she doesn’t want you to know yet.” This time, her words tumbled out all at once, rapid fire, before she continued as though she hadn’t stumbled at all. “I thought I should talk to her first and find out what she wanted before talking to you.” Her lips pressed together. “I didn’t even think about talking to Petra.” Her head tilted to one side. “Yet.” She tried to smile. “I thought that you and the other woman were probably the best people to talk about it with first.” She glanced up, trying to meet his eyes. “Do you want me to tell her? I probably should; it wouldn’t take very long.” She started to stand. “Let me just—”

“No.” Rafael stood and grabbed both of Luisa’s arms, holding her steady. “No, no, I don’t want you to tell her yet.”

Luisa’s eyes widened. “Ok.” Then her brows furrowed in confusion. “Why not?”

Rafael’s eyes moved to Rose. “What legal options do I have here?” He dropped his hold on Luisa’s arms and passed her, pulling his chair over so that he could sit closer to Rose.

His stepmother maintained her position on one side of the sofa with her ankles crossed and barely turned to face him, her hands still clasped in her lap. “What options do you want?”

_Just like a lawyer._

Rafael’s lips curled into a conniving grin. Rose might not technically still be practicing, but she’d been great at offering advice – especially on his contract with Petra, given that she’d done some modifications to her own marriage contract with his father so that time could be added or subtracted, among other things, as they needed – tailoring it to their particular arrangement and what worked best for them instead of using one of the normal variants that other people used. He’d been certain she’d be a great help here, and it looked like he was right.

“You can’t just _not tell Petra_.” Luisa returned to the couch and flopped back down onto it, wringing her hands together as she walked and then spreading them out on either side of her as she sat down. “She’s going to find out eventually. You know, when she’s not pregnant but you’re spending all of your time with some other pregnant woman—”

“I’m going to be spending time with her?” Rafael asked, his eyes widening.

Luisa’s face froze. “I don’t know. I didn’t say that. I said _if_.”

His eyes narrowed. “You said _when_.”

“ _I meant if._ ” Luisa stuck her tongue out at him, and it was like he was four years old again, right after his mother left, and she was playing with him the same way his mother used to but never did again. “We can’t just not tell her. She’s not dumb.”

Rafael took a deep breath and sighed. “I plan on telling her. Eventually. After,” and here he turned to Rose, “whatever we can do with her. _To_ her.” He continued to look at Rose as Luisa said _something_ about how that wasn’t a great idea, but his stepmother didn’t seem particularly concerned in the slightest. At least _she_ was on the same page with him. “Look,” he turned back to Luisa, “Petra not only screwed me over, but she put you in a terrible situation where you had to be her accomplice. Quit trying to protect her and help me.”

“I’m not trying to protect anyone.” Luisa sat up straighter and pulled her own skirt down the slightest bit. On second glance, it, too, appeared a little rumpled, but that was probably from her overenthusiastic movements. “I just think, if I were in her situation, I’d rather you didn’t get all _hateful_ and _vengeful_ on me.” She glanced over to Rose briefly before turning back to him. “But I’m not going to stop you.”

“ _You’d_ feel better if you did something to Allison.”

Rose tensed. “Rafael, if you can get me a copy of your marriage contract, I can see if there’s anything I can do.” She uncrossed her legs and placed her hands on either side of her. “The easiest way to slip her up is to find her with someone else in a compromising position.”

“ _She means having sex—_ ” Luisa interjected.

“Not always.” Rose gave Luisa a stern look before turning back to Rafael. “That might be simplest, but anything you could prove to be compromising her position as your wife, as someone who should be acting as your soulmate until either yours shows up or your contract ends, would work. You just need to make a strong enough argument.” She crossed her legs and leaned forward again, her loos blouse revealing a little more of her breasts than he would like to see but which he knew his father would love, if he were here. He wasn’t sure how Luisa could stand it. “I can help you with that.” Her hands clasped together. “But romance with another partner – or presumed romance – isn’t the only option.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want to set my wife up with her next prey.” Rafael leaned back in his chair. He glanced over to his sister, who seemed to have frozen in her seat, her eyes widening, her mouth framing in a slight _oh_. “Look, Lu, if you don’t want to be part of the conversation—”

Luisa shook her head. “That’s not it.” Her gaze moved to Rose. “I think I should go.”

Rose’s brows rose. “It’s _your_ suite.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Luisa offered Rafael an awkward smile. “You two can keep talking here. I just, um.” She stood, straightened her skirt a little bit, and then turned to face both of them. “There’s something I need to take care of.” Her eyes met Rose’s. “We can finish our conversation later?”

“Of course.”

Rafael watched as his sister left the room and then stretched out, his legs crossing in front of him as his hands moved to grip the back of the chair. “What do you think happened?”

“With Luisa? It could be anything.” Rose rolled her eyes and turned back to Rafael. “How long do you think it will take to get me a copy of your contract?”

“Not very.” Rafael pulled out his phone. “Do you want a printed copy, or will an email do?”

* * *

Luisa paced back and forth in front of Petra and Rafael’s suite a few floors up, wringing her hands together. This was probably not the best idea she had ever had. Notably, most of her mistakes hadn’t really been _ideas_ ; it wasn’t as though she’d meant to impregnate the wrong woman, or get into a marriage contract with a woman who would cheat on her, or become an alcoholic (which, in her opinion, was not entirely her fault, given that her timer had declared alcohol to be her soulmate). Sometimes it seemed like even when she was trying her best, something unexpected would happen and then everything would come crashing down around her like Humpty Dumpty falling off of his wall.

Maybe that was why she was here now. She knew what it was like to screw up something good. She liked to think being married to her brother and being part of their family had been something good for Petra. Maybe it hadn’t. She couldn’t know. But if it hadn’t been all about money for Rose – _hah!_ – she didn’t think it would be for Petra, either. Of course, Petra wasn’t an international crime lord, so what she wanted out of her marriage could be anything.

Luisa shook her head, throwing those thoughts out, and stepped forward, knocking on the door. Then she began to pace back and forth again until Petra opened the door. She took a deep breath, and before the blonde could say anything, she said, “Invite me in.”

Petra’s brow furrowed. “What if I don’t want to?”

“I have—” What would Rose call it? “—sensitive information for you.” Luisa’s lips pressed together, and she looked down the hall, checking to make sure Rafael wasn’t around, before leaning in and saying, her voice soft. “About the baby.”

“There is no baby,” Petra said, but she stepped back, held the door open, and gestured inside, “but if you really have something I need to hear, then please, by all means, come in.”

Luisa entered her brother’s suite, her eyes glancing furtively around the room. It was much bigger than her own, as all of the suites on this floor were, but that made sense given that there were two people living here permanently instead of one who hoped to be leaving eventually but was just having a hard time. Then again, once Rafael finally gave her a better room, it would likely be one of the ones on this floor, with the rest of their family. She would enjoy the extra space.

She waited for the door to click closed before whirling around to face Petra. “You’ve been screwing Zazu.”

Point in her favor, Petra’s eyes didn’t widen even the slightest bit. She just stood there, looking at Luisa, and then smirked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

On a normal day, in a normal situation, those words might have shaken Luisa’s confidence in herself and what she’d figured out, but she knew better. She’d _heard_ those moans before (unfortunately); she just hadn’t been able to place them until she’d had to think about Petra being involved with someone else. She shook her head. “I _heard_ you.”

Petra glanced away and let out a low breath. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” she said, passing Luisa and patting her shoulder gently, “but I think you’re mistaken—”

“If you don’t stop,” Luisa said, her voice soft but as firm as she could make it, the voice of a doctor telling a patient the proper medication they needed to take even when they didn’t want to hear it, “Rafael will find out, and your marriage contract will be null and void.” She pressed her lips together before continuing, “You will lose everything.”

It took a moment before Petra reacted at all. She froze in front of the suite’s wide living room window, her fingers tapping ever so gently on the back of one of the couches, the gold band hiding her timer glittering in the light, and then she asked, without turning around, “Is this because I forced you to be my accomplice?”

Luisa’s eyes shifted, trying to place what Petra meant, before she understood. “No,” she said, choosing her words carefully so that she didn’t reveal Jane’s existence to her sister-in-law yet, given that Rafael still didn’t want her to know, “but you should know that Raf is looking for any excuse to get you back. You have to be more careful.”

Petra glanced back over her shoulder, barely meeting Luisa’s eyes. “Why are you helping me?”

“I’d want someone to help me.” Luisa glanced away, breaking the eye contact. “You’re family. We shouldn’t screw each other over just because one of us makes a mistake. Or two. Or five.” She tried to smile, but she knew it didn’t look genuine at all – it didn’t _feel_ like it. Then she shrugged. “You should ask Rose to help you. Find a way to get the most out of your contract before its time runs out.”

“Thank you.” Petra moved to sit on one of the sofas and patted the spot next to her.

Luisa moved tentatively forward and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa, as far away from Petra as she could manage while still sitting on the same couch. She tucked her legs up underneath her, smoothed her skirt out, and watched the blonde, who continued to face the open window in front of them. Everything felt tense.

“I’m sorry,” Petra said, after a long pause, “for putting you in such a _horrible_ position with your brother.” She finally turned to face Luisa, her eyes red, and reached out a hand to touch Luisa’s own. “I wasn’t sure what else to do.”

Unlike someone else with better boundaries and lower empathy might have, Luisa did not rip her hand out from under Petra’s but left it there. She didn’t take the other woman’s hand either, though. Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Petra let out a long sigh. “You mentioned my contract earlier, and I thought—”

“—that you’d screw over my brother by stealing his only hope for a child with his soulmate?” Luisa’s eyes narrowed. Despite her attempts to help, that one still stung. An affair? _That_ she understood. But the manipulation? Not as much.

“No!” Petra’s eyes widened. She took her hand from Luisa’s, clasped it together with her other one, and glanced down at them, at the golden band hiding her timer. “You weren’t there,” she said, with a shake of her head, “when his timer started up again.” Her lips pressed together, and she took a deep breath, almost grinning, if it could even be called that. It was too sad to be a grin, too somber to be a smile. “You weren’t there when it stopped.”

Luisa’s eyes remained narrowed. She’d certainly been there the first time it went off, and she remembered holding her baby brother still in her arms as it reset, remembered feeling the whir of the numbers against her own skin as it shifted from that glowing set of matching zeroes to what would be expected of a normal four-year-old – the numbers tick-tick-ticking to some far off future date. Whatever Petra thought she’d gone through was nothing compared to that, nothing compared to Luisa’s own timer going off for a drink that would kill her as much as it would change her life.

But she didn’t say any of that. It was too personal – for Rafael, of course, but especially for her. Luisa wouldn’t recount the times her timer had gone off to anyone but her soulmate, the same as Petra wouldn’t. As long as she’d known her, Petra’s timer had been zeroed out, nothing but dashes, but she’d never asked and Petra’d never told. It wasn’t her business. Those things were sacred.

Never mind that Luisa had mentioned her glitch to Jane or that Jane had mentioned her glitch to Luisa. Even if Jane wasn’t her soulmate, Luisa was _Jane’s_. That was how their relationship was _meant_ to be.

Luisa gave Petra a onceover and forced herself to relax. “So tell me, then,” she challenged, even though she’d heard the story from Rafael before. “Tell me what happened.”


	4. Chapter 4

Shortly after Luisa’s soulmate timer went off for the last time, Rafael Solano, in a fit of desperate revenge on the man who he felt stole his father’s approval from him, decided to use his playboy charms to his own ends and woo who he hoped was the man’s soulmate away from him. It was a monumental task her was certain had never been done before, although stories would indicate otherwise, and one that he believed would take all of his suave and charisma.

It wasn’t until after he’d fallen in love with her that Rafael found out Petra’s timer had gone off long, long before she ever met Lachlan, though she never explained to him just when or how, and when his heart seemed filled to the brim, he asked her to marry him. His father counselled him to use a marriage contract similar to those he had used with his lesser wives, the ones who were not and could never be his soulmate. Rafael argued against it, he bartered, but in the end, he succumbed.

The point most in Rafael’s favor, however, was that that at the exact moment Petra accepted his proposal, his own timer froze.

* * *

Luisa held her brother’s wrist close and stared at the numbers. Nothing. She picked at them with one long, manicured nail. No movement. Then she brought it to her lips and opened her mouth to gnaw on it—

“ _Hey!_ ” Rafael ripped his wrist out of his sister’s grip and pulled it to his chest. “Don’t _bite_ me!”

“I was just trying to get it to start again!” Luisa propped her hands on her hips as she straightened up. “It’s not _my_ fault that your timer is dysfunctional!” She held her hand out and waggled her fingers in a clear gesture for her brother to hand over his wrist again. He glared at her in disbelief, and she just glared back. “I’m a _medical doctor_ , Raf. We went over timer irregularities in school. There was a whole class on them! It was _fascinating_.” Her eyes seemed to twinkle as he tentatively placed his wrist in her hand again.

Rafael watched as she examined his timer. “Did they say anything about something like this happening?”

“I don’t know.” Luisa shrugged, her gaze not moving from his timer. “I didn’t always pay attention. It wasn’t particularly relevant for my area of expertise. Most of it was talking a lot about glitches and what to do if you had to amputate someone’s timer wrist.”

“ _You aren’t amputating my arm._ ”

“Of course not.” Luisa glanced up briefly. She ran her thumb over the numbers, which still remained frozen in place – neither zeroed out, replaced by dashes, or counting down – before dropping it. “I don’t think there’s anything I can do.”

“I didn’t think so.” Rafael groaned. “I wasn’t asking you to fix it. I just—”

“—wanted my medical expertise. Got it.” Luisa winked at him then stood back, brushing her hands against her skirt. She curled up on one edge of her new couch and patted the seat next to her. “So it happened when you proposed?”

Rafael shook his head. “I don’t know.” He sat down next to Luisa and leaned forward, one arm resting on each knee. “It was counting down before I asked, and I didn’t notice it had stopped until after she said yes.” Then he turned just enough to face her. “I’ve told you this before. It’s been—”

“—months, I know.” Luisa waved a hand in his direction. “But I’ve been _gone_ , and other than your wedding, I haven’t really had time to actually see it for myself.” She stretched out on her couch and placed her legs in his lap. “It’s really interesting.”

“ _Lu._ ” Rafael brushed her legs out of his lap and scooted over to the opposite end of the couch. “You’re going to get my pants dirty.”

Luisa grinned, smug. “Then you shouldn’t be wearing _white pants_.”

Rafael brushed the dirt from her feet off of his legs. It was a few minutes before he turned and looked back at his sister. “Why did you leave, anyway?” he asked. “Don’t tell me it had something to do with your soulmate.”

“It didn’t.”

This, of course, was a lie. Luisa hated that most of all about this whole situation, that she couldn’t tell her brother the truth. But when her soulmate was marrying their father (and when her soulmate was a wanted crime lord in service to _another, internationally wanted crime lord_ ), there wasn’t much of anything she could say. Not without getting him – or Rose – into trouble.

Instead, Luisa sighed and looked down. “I just felt like I needed to get away. Like if I was here long enough, you and Dad would rope me into a marriage contract of my own.” She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “I’m not that lonely.”

“It’s not about loneliness.”

“For you.” That same smile – there, but not happy. Luisa shrugged. “I’m okay.”

Rafael reaches over and pats her hand. “I worry about you.”

“Don’t.” Luisa shook her head. “Don’t.” Then she took a deep breath and seemed to relax. “It’s been months,” she said with a smile that deepened and seemed much more real than the previous ones had. “Show me everything. Show me what’s changed.”

“Are you staying this time?” Rafael asked, eyes searching his sister’s.

Luisa shrugged again and stood, brushing her hands along her skirt. “I don’t know,” she said. Her eyes seemed wistful, almost. “If I can find a good clinic, maybe.” She laughed. “Don’t talk to me about _settling down_.”

When Rafael stood, he reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “You’re family, Lu. We miss you.” He laughed. “ _I_ miss you. _Dad_ misses you.” He started toward the door and held it open for her. “When he’s not preoccupied with Rose.”

Luisa suddenly became tense and flinched. “How are they, by the way?” she asked as she followed him, even though she really didn’t want to know the answer.

“You’ll see.” The door shut behind them. “They’re a little… _tighter_ than he was with his other wives.”

Luisa looked down and swallowed once. “Tighter _how_ , exactly?”

“You’ll see,” Rafael repeated.

* * *

Truth be told, if Petra hadn’t announced her pregnancy with what should have been Rafael’s first child that very evening, Luisa would have left within the month. There was something too heart-wrenching about watching her brother fall deeper and deeper in love with a woman who wasn’t his soulmate while seeming to not care about the timer still etched into his wrist that was frozen in place – that promise of a soulmate to come who had to, _had_ to be even more fit and right for him than the blonde woman currently by his side – while watching her own soulmate, her _matched and requited_ soulmate, continue to seduce her father and act like their relationship was less than what it was – when all she wanted, all she’d _ever_ wanted, was to have her soulmate – her real, true, _human_ soulmate – with her. She was the odd one out. It was _uncomfortable_.

—it wasn’t made any better by the fact that Petra wanted Luisa in particular to work with her during the pregnancy, but there was a certain level of lovesick that Luisa could live through. Especially if there was a nephew or niece coming. She could endure almost anything for that.

Almost.

Then the cancer came. Then Petra lost the baby. Then all of that overwhelming love thinned out, and Luisa regretted that she’d ever wanted to be more _comfortable_ around her family.

This was worse.

* * *

“At least you stayed this time.” Rafael looked up from his hospital bed, his head covered with a baseball cap.

He hated it. He hated baseball caps. He hated the idea of being a person who would _wear_ baseball caps, even though he’d worn them quite a fair bit before his mother left them.

But it covered how much hair he’d lost since the chemo began.

“Maybe if I hadn’t—”

“Don’t.” Rafael’s jaw clenched, his teeth gritting together, and he looked outside the window. There wasn’t anything there worth looking at; there wasn’t anything there he hadn’t already seen a million times before.

Suddenly, Luisa stood, her hands clenched together. “You know what, Raf?”

His head snapped toward her, and his teeth gritted together even more than they already were. “ _What_ , Luisa?”

“You have _got_ to stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but Luisa continued anyway, in that rambling way of hers, like the water from a dam that had burst this time, instead of like she was trying to cover up her words with more words and find a way to force everyone to understand what she’d meant or said.

“Look, I know all of this is,” Luisa stepped forward and hesitated, “well, frankly, it’s really, really _shitty_ , but there’s…there’s _good_ to it, you know?” She glanced back behind her, towards the door, where Petra must have been waiting, must have been listening in. “You’ve got a wife. She might not be your _soulmate_ , but she love you, and _you_ love _her_. Or you _did_ at one point. You’ve seen the sort of marriage contracts Dad’s been in, you know that _happiness_ isn’t what those contracts are about, they’re about _appearances_ , and you— You’re actually _happy_.” Her hands relaxed. You’ve still got me, which isn’t saying much, but it’s something.” She reached out to pat his hand then, on second thought, flipped it so that his wrist showed his timer, which was still frozen and not zeroed out. “ _And this—_ ” She lifted his hand and held his timer up in front of his face. “This has to mean _something_. It does! Your timer still hasn’t gone off, which means whatever shit is happening with your cancer, _you are going to get better_. Or be a zombie. I’m pretty sure zombies aren’t going to be a thing anytime soon, though, so _I’m_ going with _you’re going to get better_.”

Rafael tore his wrist out of her hand and held it up against his side, hiding his timer. “That’s frozen, Lu. You don’t know if it’ll go off at all anymore.”

“ _Everyone’s timer zeroes out, Raf._ ” Luisa glared at him. “Yours is just stuck. It’ll start again.” She took a deep breath. “What I’m saying is you have _got_ to start looking on the bright side. If you wallow like this, you’ll just—”

“What, turn out like you?” Rafael snapped. He glared at his sister. “You’re always running away from _everything_ and acting like you’re _fine_ , and we all know you’re _not_ , Lu. You’re not. _Your_ bright side has to be more going to the other side of the world to escape us.”

Luisa’s eyes widened. “I’m not trying to escape _you_. I’m—”

“Just _go_.” Rafael gestured to the door. “I don’t want to see you right now. Come back when you aren’t going to _lecture_ me.”

“Raf—”

But a look from him silenced her. There were tears creeping into the corners of her eyes as she left, the door slamming shut behind her.

Once she was gone, Rafael stared at his timer again. The numbers were still frozen in place, just like they had been for the past two years. He’d seen Luisa pick at her timer so often in the past few years that he found himself doing the same thing, his fingernails digging into the numbers as though that would, somehow, get them to start again. If it were a clock, he could pick it up and throw it against the wall until shattered, but this was embedded in his flesh. He began to scratch at the numbers until his fingertips turned bloody.

It didn’t work. _Nothing_ worked.

Rafael slammed his wrist down on the edge of the table next to him hard enough that something should have broken. The wood split. His wrist _ached_. But the numbers were still there, still the same, unmoving. He tried to clench his hand into a fist, but his fingers wouldn’t move.

_Good job, Rafael. Now your hand is broken. Just like your stupid timer._

One hot, angry tear rolled down his cheek. A bird landed on the branch just outside his window – a cardinal, bright red with its black markings – and stared at him. He stared back.

So he wasn’t dead yet.

Now what?

The cardinal tilted its head to one side and hopped closer to the window. It chirped at him once and then flew away.

_Look on the bright side._

Rafael considered it then took a deep breath. _Ok. Bright side._ He glanced outside the window. _I saw a cardinal today._ He stood, shook his hand a few times, and then walked forward. Maybe there were a few things he needed to reconsider.

His wrist throbbed violently, and his timer flashed a bright white.

He glanced down, catching the white zeroes blazing on his wrist as they blinked once, twice, three times before the numbers began to whir. They stopped and began to slowly, _slowly_ count down again, the seconds and milliseconds continuing so fast that sometimes he could pick out a number or two before they all blurred together.

Two years, two months, fifteen days, eighteen hours—

_Ok._

Rafael took another deep breath.

_That’s a bright side._

* * *

“—and he looked at me like I didn’t even exist anymore,” Petra finished, staring down at her empty hands. She smiled as she looked at them. “For a little while, when his timer was frozen, I thought….” She let out a little laugh and glanced up to meet Luisa’s eyes. “I thought we could be happy, the two of us. That maybe, out of all the contracts and conveniences, we could stay together. Just us. Who could say we were wrong? His timer wouldn’t. It stopped for me.” This time, the laugh was a bitter bark. “It didn’t zero. It _stopped_.”

Luisa pressed her lips together. “What did you think having his kid would do?”

Petra’s gaze moved out to the window again, and it seemed as wistful as Luisa’s had been two years before. “I thought we could go back,” she said, finally. “I know it sounds foolish.”

“Not to me,” Luisa replied, her voice soft. “Not to me.” Her eyes narrowed. “But if _that’s_ the case, then what’s the deal with all of this Zazu crap?” Her hands moved outward in a frustrated exaggeration.

“He hates that you call him that, you know.” Petra chuckled and glanced at her hands, which were still wound together, her bracelets clinking ever so slightly against each other. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “When the person you love stops loving you, sometimes you want to get back at them.” She sighed and leaned back against the couch, spreading her arms out across its back. “Doesn’t matter who you’re doing, all that matters is _why_. And you have to admit,” she said, turning to Luisa, “it helped keep his hands off the waitstaff. That’s just good for business.”

Luisa’s eyes narrowed further. “You don’t sell yourself out and jeopardize your marriage contract just for _business_.” As soon as she said it, though, she thought of Rose. But that was different. She was Rose’s soulmate. There were loopholes in marriage contracts for soulmates. That wasn’t considered an affair; that was _destiny_. The marriage contract itself would be the affair in that case. Soulmate bonds were stronger than those contracts were.

“No, _you_ don’t.” Petra met Luisa’s eyes and sighed again. “Besides, I’m sure you understand the idea of wanting to hurt your partner.”

“No.” Luisa’s eyes widened. Did Petra know? She and Rose had been careful – _very_ careful. But if she could hear Petra through her walls, then Petra and Zaz could hear her – _and Rose_ – through theirs. “I don’t want to hurt anybody.”

Petra shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean Allison didn’t want to hurt you.” She turned away again and continued before Luisa could say anything. “Or not. People break their contracts for different reasons. You don’t seem like the type to fall out of love with anyone you love.”

Luisa didn’t answer that. It was, of course, completely correct. She could still remember everyone she’d loved throughout her admittedly not so long life so far, and every single one of them she still loved. Was that an affront to Rose, to her soulmate, to still be so completely in love with other people? Being in love with them didn’t mean she would choose them, didn’t mean she would go back to them if given the choice. Rose was her soulmate. Of course, she would come first.

In the silence of her lack of an answer, Petra turned to face her again. “I don’t love him, you know. Roman. He’s just a means to an end.”

Luisa nodded once. “I believe you, but I don’t think Raf will. Speaking of which,” she glanced away, thinking, “I should go before he gets back.” Her eyes twinkled as she turned back with a brilliant grin. “Wouldn’t want him to know I was here, after all.” She winked slyly at the blonde as she stood, pressing her hands along her skirt to smooth out its wrinkles.

Petra nodded. “Thank you, Luisa. I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“No one really does,” Luisa said with a sigh. She propped one hand on her hip and looked out the window. “At least it’s sunny! That’s hopeful.” A grin lit her face. “You can’t have a truly horrible day when it’s sunny. It would have to be _raining_ or _thunderstorming_ or _hurricanes_ or something like that. You know. All that weather themed stuff.”

Petra didn’t turn to her. “The real world doesn’t work that way. You know that just as well as I do.”

Luisa shrugged. “But it’s a nice thought, isn’t it?”


	5. Chapter 5

_Oh, no. Not again!_

Jane stared at the customer – she hadn’t wanted to learn his name and so hadn’t asked for it, and he hadn’t been one of those pushy sorts of customers who _wanted_ her to know his name, which was fortunate for her – but she imagined his name was something fancy and expensive like William or Matthew or Gregory. Like he was one of those people who didn’t want to have an inferior nickname (Bill, Matt, Greg) but instead forced everyone he encountered to use his full name. Truth be told, that was true of a lot of the customers around the Marbella, but this one….

It was the suit. The suit and the fact that he was always specific about the type of wine he wanted and no matter what any of them did, they never could quite fulfill whatever his desire was. This time he’d sat in _her_ station, and even if he hadn’t, it was only her and Line on the floor and Lina’d been his waitress last time and refused, _absolutely refused_ , to wait on him today.

“No,” Gregory – wasn’t his name, but it was what Jane was going to be calling him from now on – said, holding his glass out to one side. “This isn’t right. This is _corked_ , not dry.” He let out a disappointed sigh and looked away from her. “Do you have a manager or someone I can speak to? It seems like _no one_ can get this right, and that’s—” A slight smile tweaked at the corner of his lips as he shook his head once, placing his fingers to his temple. “I think that’s a real problem with your staff, isn’t it?”

All of a sudden, someone touched Jane’s shoulder and stepped up next to her. “It’s not _corked_. It’s _complex_.” The woman’s voice was soft, gentle, _seductive_ —

Okay, so maybe Jane had been writing too many romance novels with too many evil female antagonists, and this woman had the kind of smooth voice that she felt like every single one of them had, only she’d never really experienced it in person before. In all honesty, she hadn’t thought that real people could even _have_ a voice like hers, unless they were pretending or acting or something like that. She turned to face the woman who had come to her rescue – _So not an evil antagonist after all!_ – and froze.

The woman was beautiful. Red hair, creamy skin, freckles, piercing blue eyes that held a quiet sort of icy beauty all their own – _none of which she would have noticed, she will have you know, if her soulmate hadn’t turned out to be a woman and if_ Luisa wasn’t such a great kisser—

Jane took a deep breath. Who _was_ she?

“I’m sorry,” Gregory said, staring at the redhead. “I was just asking to speak to one of the managers. Who are you?”

The redhead grinned – and the expression sent a chill down Jane’s spine because that was _not_ a good grin, although Gregory didn’t seem to notice it – and stepped forward, holding out one hand in an extremely formal gesture. “Rose Solano,” she said. “My husband owns the hotel.” Something in her eyes shifted and flickered. “I felt the grapes at that particular vineyard in Switzerland myself, but unfortunately,” she continued, her voice still soft and soothing, “you seem to be having trouble with their particular texture. Would you rather I get you something more suited to your taste?”

Gregory swallowed and shook his head once. “No.” His voice was suddenly tight. “This is good.” He glanced to Jane as though afraid to look at Rose longer. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Rose hadn’t removed her hand from Jane’s shoulder. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal her, do you?” she asked him. “I will make sure to send you one of our other waitresses to take care of you while she’s gone.”

“Yeah.” Gregory was still avoiding Rose’s eye contact. “Sure. Of course.”

Bonus points of walking all over one of the customers – having them agree to anything and everything you wanted. Jane didn’t have that kind of pure charisma, but she was definitely happy that this Rose woman had stepped in. _More_ than happy. Overjoyed. She’d been waiting for someone to put Gregory in his place for a while now, and now that he was, she felt much, much better.

Rose removed her hand from Jane’s shoulder and gestured for her to follow her, and Jane did easily enough. But as Rose led her from the floor to a much more private location, she realized that she could only think of one reason that Rose would want to speak with her privately at all. Jane sighed inaudibly. She’d _asked_ Luisa not to tell Rafael or his wife about her yet, but apparently her soulmate really _couldn’t_ keep her mouth shut. After everything, maybe she shouldn’t be surprised.

“Rafael asked me to speak with you,” Rose said, her voice a little softer and more formal as they moved from the Marbella proper to its grounds. She turned just enough to glance at Jane, and Jane noticed the bright blue eyes that seemed to take in her entire appearance. “I hope that doesn’t bother you?”

* * *

Jane sighed, brushing her dark hair back behind her ear. “It doesn’t bother me,” she said in a hesitant tone that very clearly said she _was_ bothered. “You’re his wife, aren’t you? Luisa wasn’t supposed to—” Her voice faded away, and she sighed again. “I didn’t want to meet with either of you. _Yet_ ,” she corrected, raising her hands. “I didn’t want to meet with you _yet_. I wasn’t ready, you know?” She stopped. Her first instinct was to apologize, but she didn’t know why or what for. She hadn’t done anything wrong.

But she could see Rose’s jaw tighten. The redhead seemed to grow tense all at once. Then she relaxed with a quick breath out. “I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” she said, finally. “My husband is _Emilio_ Solano. Rafael’s father.”

Jane blinked twice. “But you said you were married to the hotel owner?”

Rose nodded. “Rafael manages the hotel and holds the most shares _apart from_ his father. As much as he might like to pretend he’s the owner, he isn’t. But I can see why you were confused.” It was then that Rose turned more fully to her, as though to give Jane her full, uninterrupted attention, taking her in as something other than a simple waitress. “He’d asked me to make sure you were ok, after seeing your reactions with his sister yesterday, but,” and she hesitated, “you’re the woman she got pregnant, aren’t you?”

Jane’s eyes widened, but that reaction alone seemed to be enough affirmation for the other woman.

“Go change,” Rose said, her expression seeming to soften. “I’d like to talk to you – _not_ as an extension of the hotel.” As though sensing Jane’s wariness, she continued, “I’ll arrange things with Roman. Don’t worry. You’ll be well taken care of.”

It was only then that Jane nodded slowly. “O…ok. I trust you.”

But as she left Rose and went to change, Jane couldn’t shake an unsettling feeling she had growing in the center of her chest. Something felt _off_. So she sent Luisa a quick text: _Your…._

Jane wasn’t sure what to call Rose. She looked too young to be Rafael’s real mother. It must be a marriage contract. Was that all rich people did? She shuddered.

_Your stepmother is taking me out. Should I be worried?_

And it was only on getting the very firm _No_ text in response from her soulmate that Jane began to relax, even if it was only a little bit.

* * *

_“Rose, what are you doing?”_

“ _Nothing_ , Luisa.” Rose held the phone up close to her ear, head tilted to one side, lips pressed together. “Rafael asked me to check in on one of the waitresses after she seemed unwell during your conversation yesterday. How was _I_ to know that—”

_“Don’t pull that shit with me, Rose. You knew who she was!”_

Rose took a breath to steady herself. “I _guessed_ , but I hadn’t planned to bring it up unless she did.” One of her long fingers tapped on the back of her phone. “I was curious. You can’t blame me for being curious.”

_“I would have introduced you to her if I thought that was what you wanted.”_

“I wanted to meet her on my own,” Rose said, her voice soft again. “I told you I wouldn’t hurt her, and I meant it. She’ll be fine.” She sighed, her gaze turning to where the woman in question was just beginning to leave the Marbella in an outfit other than her waitressing one. It was simple. _Very_ simple. “She’s back. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

_“Rose, I was not done—”_

The redhead flicked the phone shut and stuffed it into her little pink purse, a smile growing on her lips as Jane came to meet her. “Jane!” Playing the doting stepmother – mother-in-law – _whatever_ she was supposed to be in relation to Jane, as the mother of Rafael’s child, was not a role that would come easily, and fortunately enough, it looked as though it was not a role Jane expected her to play. Still, she took the other woman’s hands in her own. “You look—” There were a lot of words that came to mind as she looked over her soulmate’s new… _not_ soulmate, none of them particularly good. Her head tilted to one side, eyes moving away and then returning to Jane’s face with a souring smile.

This, too, was an act. Everything was. Rose Solano was a trophy wife to Jane’s soulmate’s father in a contract marriage to someone who was _likely_ not her soulmate. There was a certain level of expectation to how such a woman should act, and while Rose knew that there were certain aspects of how she’d already presented herself to Jane that revealed expertise in other matters, she had to strike a balance.

Jane responded the way she expected – wrapping her arms around herself, hiding as much of herself as she could – but she didn’t look down or away, which was intriguing. Instead, Jane tilted her head back, looking Rose in the eye just as much as she could. One brow raised, questioning what she would say next.

Rose couldn’t help but feel _pleased_. Her soulmate’s new _not_ soulmate had sass. She liked that.

“You have style,” Rose finally said, her eyes twinkling with the appraisal she’d actually wanted. “But,” and here she sighed, fingers tapping along her chin, “it’s hidden beneath all of the cheap—” She cut herself off and let her eyes light up as though she’d just had a brilliant idea. In truth, _all_ of her ideas were brilliant, this one no less so than any of the others; this one just wasn’t as _impulsive_ as she feigned that it was to Jane. “C’mon,” she said, tugging on the other woman’s hand with a pleasant, warm smile. “Let’s go shopping.”

* * *

The store was _upscale_. That was, of course, the entire point of the outing. Jane knew that. She _knew_ that. Rich people being rich and shopping at rich places and now that she was somehow part of their clan, she needed to shop at rich places, too. Never mind the fact that she didn’t have the money to buy even a pair of socks at a place like this (it’s the truth; she looked and made a face at the price and then quickly tried to hide her expression from Rose under an embarrassed, awkward grin that she was sure didn’t look _near_ as awkward as some of the smiles _Luisa_ had given _her_ – which meant that Rose probably read her discomfort just as easily as she read Luisa’s in such a situation)—

 _And there was Rose_ , flitting through the racks with ease, pulling aside one or two select outfits, holding a few others up as though examining them against Jane with a critical eye, and then putting some of them back and keeping others out, and, finally, waving a hand at her. “Go, Jane. _Shop._ Find something you like.”

As though Jane could do any of that without looking at the price tag. Every time she found an outfit she thought she liked – usually a dress, although there were a couple of blouses that seemed _really nice_ – she’d look at the price and balk at an amount that she wouldn’t make within three months of pay checks and very _very_ carefully put back whatever it was she’d pulled out. Eventually, Rose found her staring at a little black dress, just _staring_ at it because she knew if she got any closer she would fall deeply in love with it and start trying to convince herself in that way she had that the price _was_ worth it and then _hating herself_ when she knew that, even if it _might_ be _remotely_ worth it, there was no way she could _afford it_ when there were so many other things to pay first (like _bills_ , Jane. Remember the bills!).

Rose glanced from the dress to Jane and then back again, as though sizing both up, and then gave a nod. “You should get it.” Her head tilted to one side, wavered. “Or at least try it on.” She handed Jane a few other pieces. “These, too.” And only _then_ did she seem to notice that Jane hadn’t picked anything out herself. “Is something wrong?”

“Rose, I can’t—” Jane swallowed once, her lips pressing together. “I can’t afford any of this. Not on—”

_No, Jane! You can’t complain to your boss’s boss’s boss about how much they are paying you! That’s a good way to get someone fired!_

_Probably you!_

She swallowed again. “I—”

“Don’t worry about it.” Rose waved a hand, dismissing what Jane was saying. “I’ll pay for it. Whatever you want.” She smiled. “We girls have to stick together, don’t we?”

Jane stared at her…whatever she was supposed to call Rose. Just stared at her, kind of the same way she’d been staring at the little black dress. She wasn’t sure how to react. Finally, she thought better of herself. “No. I can’t…I can’t _accept_ that. That’s—”

“Jane.” Rose reached over and touched her arm gently. “You’re carrying my stepson’s child after my stepdaughter accidentally got you pregnant. _The very least_ I can do is buy you some nice clothes.”

_Well, when she puts it that way…._

“Now go,” Rose suggested with a smile that Jane found strangely comforting. “Try the dress on. _And those._ ” She gestured to the clothes she’d handed her. “And pick some out for yourself.” Her words were a little more forceful now than they had been before, but it wasn’t a _bad_ sort of forceful. More…not _motherly_ , although these were definitely the sorts of suggestions her own mom would make under the circumstances, but more like…like having a sister.

Jane had never had a sister before. She didn’t know what that felt like.

“Ok.”

* * *

The little black dress was a little tighter than Jane had expected, and the zipper in the back was a _pain_. She opened the dressing room door and stuck her head out, looking left and right. “Rose?”

“Hm?” Rose glanced over the short wall separating her stall from the one next to her.

Jane instinctively covered herself with her arms before realizing that she was still in the dress and then gave herself a little shake to pull out of that mindset. When she looked up, Rose was smiling. Okay, so it _was_ kind of funny. “Can you zip me up?”

Rose’s eyes widened, and her smile deepened. “Of course, I can.” Her head disappeared from above the stall, her bare feet slapping the tiled floor as she stepped down from whatever she was standing on, and a few seconds later, there she was. She twirled one of her fingers. “Turn.”

Jane obeyed.

Rose’s fingers were soft as she zipped up the back of the dress. It was snug. Maybe a little _too_ snug, but as Jane looked at herself in the mirror, she knew the look was _perfect_. Truth be told, she felt a little like Holly Golightly, just without the pearl necklace…and the white gloves…and the sunglasses…and with her hair down. So not _really_ like her. But she _could_ be her, if she wanted.

All of a sudden, Rose rested her chin on Jane’s right shoulder. “Look at yourself, Jane. You’re beautiful.” She drummed her fingers against her leg. “Well, you were beautiful _before_ , but you see how the dress enhances that. Much better than your _other_ clothes.”

“My other clothes do a good enough job,” Jane snapped, but there was no bite to it. She turned to the woman still resting her chin on her shoulder and tilted her head to one side. “Do you think Luisa will like it?”

Rose seemed to physically hesitate. She removed her chin from Jane’s shoulder and stepped back. Then she stared at her, head tilting to one side and laying gentle on her slender fingers. “Yes,” she said, finally, as her eyes met Jane’s in the mirror. “Why does it matter if Luisa would like it?”

_Oh._

Jane had assumed that when Luisa explained things to Rose she had explained everything, the same way that she would normally explain everything to her mom if she hadn’t been mulling it over and then been blindsided by the whole _pregnancy_ aspect. But, then, Rose wasn’t really Luisa’s mom in the same way, and no matter how nice Rose was being now, she was likely still just a wife of convenience and not one that was really meshed with the family in the way that Jane—

_—wouldn’t be._

It hadn’t really hit. Well, it hadn’t _needed_ to hit because Jane hadn’t really thought of herself as part of Luisa’s family…even if Luisa _was_ her soulmate and she was carrying Luisa’s brother’s child. She would think, with all of the complication, that she would be something to them, but, in the end, that wasn’t necessarily going to be the case, was it?

“I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

Jane pressed her hand along the edge of the black dress, flattening out any wrinkles – there weren’t any, really, but it was a nervous tick that made her feel a little better, if only because it meant she broke eye contact with Rose. Then, because she hadn’t told anyone else yet and because she couldn’t keep it in any longer, she said, her voice soft as Rose’s had been, “She’s my soulmate.” A little smile crept to her lips as she remembered their first – _second_ – kiss. “I want her to think I look nice.” Her gaze flicked up briefly so that she could meet Rose’s eyes in the mirror.

For a moment, just a moment, Jane was convinced that Rose was staring fire at her, that her jaw was clenched so tight that her teeth were gritting together, but that moment – and the image contained within it – changed so quickly that she was certain she was wrong. As soon as their eyes met, Rose’s entire expression softened all at once to what it had been before. Jane was convinced that she was just seeing things.

“Well,” Rose smiled – or tried to – it seemed a little more strained than it had been before, but maybe that was because someone like Rose couldn’t imagine someone like Jane being someone like Luisa’s soulmate (and she’d be right because Jane _wasn’t_ Luisa’s soulmate, just the other way around), “I can assure you, she will love the way you look in this.”

Jane stared at herself in the mirror. She didn’t look like _her_ but like someone _like_ her. Someone who had the money to afford these sorts of things, someone who she could one day become if she ever got one of her books published. Or if she and Luisa—

“Would you like me to look for more things she’d like?”

Jane’s head popped up, and she met Rose’s eyes where they were reflected in the mirror. “Would you really do that? For me?”

“Of course.” Rose’s voice sounded off, but Jane chalked that up to the room they were in. She nodded to the few clothes Jane still had hanging in her stall, the ones she hadn’t tried on yet, too enthralled by the little black dress itself – the way she still was, in fact. “I know for a fact that she will definitely like those.”

“She will?”

Rose smiled and stepped forward and placed her hand on Jane’s shoulder again. “She’s your soulmate, isn’t she? She already likes you. The rest of this,” and she gestured to the clothes hanging on the rack, the ones Jane had discarded and folded on the bench on the other side of the stall, “is just external wrapping. It’s _you_ that she likes.”

“But I’m not her—” Jane stopped all at once and pressed her lips together. These were things she hadn’t even shared with her mom or abuela yet, and here she was being so open with this woman who she’d only just met earlier today. _Luisa’s_ stepmom. A woman in a marriage contract, something her mom had avoided and her abuela despised. And—

Jane tilted her head ever so gently, and there, in the mirror, was the reflection of Rose’s own timer, completely zeroed out the same as Jane’s was now. She wanted to ask, but it was taboo. Whoever Rose’s soulmate was, they weren’t together. _Wouldn’t be_ together, either, if her marriage contract was any indicator. How incredibly lonely.

“Not her what?” Rose asked, her voice incredibly soft. Welcoming. Like a warm blanket when the air conditioning in her college classroom had been cranked up too high.

“Her soulmate,” Jane admitted. She shook her head, shook herself out of those thoughts. “Can you unzip me? I can only just—” One hand reached back and just barely hit the zipper, pulling it down just as far as she could but still not nearly far enough. “Please?”

She didn’t have to ask again; all too quickly, Jane could feel Rose’s cold fingertips against her skin as she finished the zipper. It probably wasn’t intentional, but she could feel her nails a little more this time, and the zipper—

“ _Ouch._ ”

“Sorry!” Rose’s head jumped up. “The zipper was stuck. I’m just trying to—”

The pressure on Jane’s spine released.

“ _There._ ” Rose brushed a hand through her red waves and stepped back with a little sigh. “It should be better now.” She gestured to the dress. “You might want to trade this one for one of the others on the rack. A zipper like that….” Her head shook as she made a little _tsk_ ing sound. Then, on second thought, she smiled. “I’ll get it for you. Then you don’t even have to worry about it.”

“Rose, you really don’t—”

But Rose dismissed her concerns with another hand gesture. “I already told you, don’t worry about it. It’s the least I can do.” She smiled again. “Consider it a belated birthday present.”

Jane’s eyes widened. “My birthday’s coming up, actually. Just a few days from now.”

“So an _early_ birthday present, then.” Rose stepped out of the stall and shut the door behind her. “I already told you, Jane. Whatever you want, just ask, and I’ll cover it.”


	6. Chapter 6

After Jane and Rose tried on a lot of different clothes and then finalized their purchases (Jane did, in fact, end up letting Rose buy her the little black dress that she’d fallen so deeply in love with, as well as two new blouses, a new floral patterned skirt, and a new pair of slacks that were left with a tailor so that they would better fit her exact body shape – because, as Rose told her, one phenomenal piece can make an entire look, so mixing these upscale pieces with her…less flattering ones would make her seem even more interesting and appealing to the others in the Solano-Alver family clan – and Rose made a few purchases of her own, any piece of which cost more than Jane made in a month and all of which together cost more than she’d ever had together all at once time, with the exception of student loans)—

_After all of that, my friends, Jane decided it was her turn to treat Rose! How could she not, after Rose spent so much on her? How could she know that Rose was her soulmate’s soulmate? She couldn’t! Disaster!_

At first, Jane thought that she might take Rose to the beachfront near the carnival – the same one where Luisa had taken her at the end of their first _not date_ , where they had gotten donuts from the funnel cake vendor and shared their first (and second – and third!) kiss – but the fact that it had taken such a special meaning with her soulmate soured her to that idea. She wanted to go back again with Luisa, to buy funnel cakes (even though the donuts had been _amazing_ ) and go to the carnival itself, to play some of the games (like popping the balloons) and win dumb stuffed animal prizes, to have their pictures taken together in the photo booth so she had something to hold onto when Luisa wasn’t around, and to finally go up in the ferris wheel, to sit at the top when it was dark and look out at the stars together, before—

_Well, Jane had a lot of thoughts about what could happen at the top of the ferris wheel, but they aren’t appropriate to share with an audience. She’s a romance writer! They have extremely dirty minds._

_I hope none of_ you _are romance writers, but if you are, you certainly know the kind of thoughts Jane was having._

Jane couldn’t take Rose to the restaurant where Luisa had taken her before the beachfront – even if she wanted to, the price was far above anything she could afford – and it was hard to think of anywhere that someone who was by now so used to the rich life would truly enjoy. It was only when Rose placed her hand on Jane’s and told her that _anywhere_ she took her would be more than perfect, that she would enjoy _any_ look into Jane’s life – things Jane couldn’t help but wish that Luisa had said, too, but expected that, where Luisa felt, with the whole accidental pregnancy thing, that she should keep her distance, Rose _didn’t_ – Jane decided exactly – _exactly_ – where they should go.

A few blocks from her house, there was a food truck that served the most amazing sandwiches. They were always a little too big for Jane to eat on her own, and while she’d tried to leave the other half in a fridge and come back to it later the way you can with Subway or other deli sandwiches, whatever it was that made these so amazing seemed to be lost whenever they stayed in the fridge. She’d gotten into the habit of getting them and giving the other half to Lina or one of her other coworkers (anyone other than Tom the bellhop or the higher-ups – Roman and such); most of them were about to hit a break by the time she got in, and they often split the cost when they could afford it. Jane didn’t know what sort of sandwiches Rose liked, but she didn’t seem to mind standing in line with her, a curious expression on her face.

“They have donuts,” Rose said as they made it close enough to the truck to see their menu.

“Oh, those are okay, but what you really want is—” Jane turned to Rose, waving one hand, then caught the other woman’s star of inexplicable _longing_. Her brows raised. “Okay, if you want the donuts, we can get donuts.” She clasped her hands together. “But we are also getting a sandwich, and you are going to share it with me, because if I take the other half of it home, Abuela will say I’m just spoiling my dinner.”

Rose turned to face her with a blank expression on her face. “Do people actually say that? I thought that was just something parents said in telenovelas.”

“People say that!” Jane said with an exasperated tone. “Did your parents ever remind you about the starving children in China?”

Rose blinked. “Why would they do that?’

“To get you to eat everything.”

Rose shook her head. “My stepmother had other ways of threatening me. The starving children in China wouldn’t have done her any good.” She turned and stared straight ahead. “I would have found a way to take the food and actually ship it to them.”

Jane laughed. “Yeah, I tried that, too. I think I actually ended up sending a box of canned food to some orphanage I’d looked up online.” She grinned. “Actually, I ended up starting my own food drive at school, and a bunch of us got all the food we didn’t want out of our cabinets and sent them. We got in so much trouble.”

She pretended to let the comment about Rose’s stepmother slide, but in reality, Jane was filing it away to examine it later. Not that there was much examining she could do with it – it was just another piece in the puzzle that was the Solano-Alver family. People with too much money who didn’t know what to do with it. Not that she could complain, considering her new clothes.

They made it to the front of the line, and Jane made her order, making sure to cut the sandwich clean down the middle and offering half of it to Rose. Rose took the platter of donuts covered in honey and powdered sugar, and together they walked to a planter where they could sit on the edge and eat. Over to one side, Jane could see the blond man who seemed to be there every time she was, and when he waved at her she gave a little wave back.

Rose turned and looked in his direction. “Who’s that?”

“I don’t know,” Jane said. “I think he’s a policeman. I see him around here a lot, and he waves and I wave back.” She shrugged. “It’s a little creepy, actually, but I think if I didn’t wave something bad would happen.” In an attempt to change the topic, Jane reached over to swipe one of the donuts from Rose’s place, and the redhead looked back at her with such a look of utter loathing that Jane let the donut drop back to the plate, her hands up and as open as they could be with her half of the sandwich in one of them. “I’m sorry, I thought we were sharing our food today, but if you’re that protective—”

“No, no, I’m sorry.” Rose’s expression softened, and she pushed the donuts in Jane’s direction. “Take one.”

“You’re sure?” Jane asked, her fingers hovering over the plate.

Rose smiled. “Of course. I just don’t get them very often.” She took a donut of her own and held it in front of her face, examining it, as Jane grabbed one of her own. “It would _ruin_ my image if Emilio saw me eating all of this fatty food.”

 _Emilio._ Jane had only heard the name when Rose mentioned it before, and as Rose took her first bite, she sighed, thinking about this figure she hadn’t met yet. “Luisa’s dad.” It kind of explained why even Luisa knew where the best place to get donuts was, given that she and her stepmother seemed to be such good friends. And at a funnel cake vendor! Who had said something about Luisa having a girlfriend—

“Yes, that would be him.” Rose glanced down and away from Jane. “He should be here soon. The hotel in Ireland seems to be going smoothly, and he doesn’t want to mother hen the whole process.” Her smile faded. “Luisa’s your soulmate. You should meet him. I think he would like you.” All of a sudden, her face grew dark again. “Much better than Allison.”

“Luisa’s wife.”

“Ex-wife now.”

Someone Jane would likely never meet. Someone Luisa only married because her soulmate – who she still saw frequently – was married to someone else. Jane’s brow furrowed, and she asked before she even thought it through, “You’re her soulmate, aren’t you?”

Rose stopped with another donut between her fingertips and the other half of the sandwich in her other hand. She blinked a couple of times. “What did you say?”

“Luisa’s soulmate,” Jane said, a little clearer, even though her voice was still just as soft. She didn’t look up. In fact, she didn’t think Rose would admit it, even if it were true. “It’s you, isn’t it? You’re Luisa’s soulmate, and she’s yours.”

**And you’re married to her dad. That’s so many layers of fucked up!**

Rose slowly lay the sandwich down on the plate of donuts, where it barely touched the honey and remained far enough away from the cinnamon to be untainted. “I’m not sure what you mean,” she said, her words very careful and hesitant, and if Jane hadn’t known before, she felt certain that she knew now. “I’m married to her father.” Rose’s brows rose. “Soulmates don’t marry their soulmate’s father.”

Jane couldn’t think of any reason why Rose would do that. _She_ certainly wouldn’t do it. Not if she and Luisa had belonged to each other and weren’t just half and half as they were now. “It…doesn’t make any sense,” she said, just as hesitant as Rose had been, if not more so. Then she laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. She couldn’t say why, but she was so _certain_. “You fit with what she told me, and I just….” She shook her head. “I try to write, and I watch _a lot_ of telenovelas, and sometimes I jump to some outrageous conclusions.” There it was again, that nervous laugh, and she looked up at Rose again. “I’m sorry.”

Rose’s expression was neutral at best. Jane didn’t know what she expected. Finally, Rose said, glancing down at their plate, “I’m glad you asked me, instead of Luisa. If she’s told you that much about her soulmate, then you must know how deeply in love with her she was – and still is.” She began to pick at the sandwich. “It broke her heart when her soulmate married someone else. She still thinks that, someday, this woman will leave her marriage contract and come back and marry her.” Rose’s head tilted ever so slightly to one side. “As far as I know, her soulmate encourages the thought.”

“That’s horrible!” Jane exclaimed.

“Yes.” Rose paused. “That’s why I was interested, when you said she was your soulmate. If it were me, I’d take her far away from here. Spoil her. She deserves that.” Then Rose shrugged and leaned back. “She deserves someone who loves her, not like her soulmate.” Then she glanced up, meeting Jane’s eyes. “Is that person you?”

“You think I’m not?” Jane could feel the anger white hot creeping beneath her skin turning the previously warm feelings she had for the other woman into something…. Well, they were still _warm_ , just not the good kind of warm, more like the angry kind of warm, like heartburn instead of something more soothing. “I know I’m not her soulmate, but—” Jane moved to place her half-eaten half of the sandwich on the plate and then thought better of it because she really liked her sandwich. “—that doesn’t mean I can’t _love_ her.” She shifted on the planter, her back growing straighter, as though a steel rod had been jammed through it. “You can love people who aren’t your soulmate, after all.”

_This is true. Petra, after all, really did love Rafael, and, for a little while, Rafael really did love Petra. But that, my friends, is another story._

Rose picked at the donuts again before taking her half of the sandwich. “I can’t say what you are, Jane, or what you’re capable of. Only you can do that.” She finally took a small bite of the sandwich, and her eyes lit up. Then she lifted the sandwich. “This is really good.”

“I _told you_ it was good.” Jane calmed down and took a deep breath. “I guess you’re just…trying to be a good stepmother.” She took a bite of her sandwich and watched as Rose swallowed.

“No. I’m trying to be a good friend.” Rose glanced away. “I may be Emilio’s _wife_ , but I’m closer to Luisa and Rafael’s age. The three of us – and Petra, Rafael’s wife – are a team.” She looked back to Jane. “We take care of each other.”

_She says as she conspires to find a way to sue Petra out of her marriage contract with Rafael after Petra got them all into this situation by stealing his sperm sample._

_…she_ is _Sin Rostro, after all._

_And Petra? Well, my friends, you have heard the story she wants to tell, even if it is not the real one._

“I just want to make sure,” Rose continued, “that you aren’t going to hurt her.”

Jane broke their eye contact and looked down at her sandwich. The lettuce seemed a little more floppy than normal, even though it tasted the same. That was probably the sauce. “I don’t know,” she said, finally. “I never thought I would be….” She hesitated. There had to be a better way of putting it, but she wasn’t sure what that was. Her lips pressed together, and she glanced up briefly. “Like Luisa. I thought…. Well, I thought my soulmate would be a _guy_.” She laughed lightly and glanced down again. “Apparently that was _not_ what my timer had in store for me. You must know what that feels like, though,” she continued, gesturing towards Rose’s timer, “since you’re in a contract and not—”

It wasn’t the judginess that made her pause but the realization that she didn’t know anything at all about the situation between Rose and her soulmate, only that her timer had already zeroed out. She couldn’t be this familiar and nonchalant when she didn’t know, and by now, she was convinced that Rose was only acting as a friend and wasn’t Luisa’s soulmate at all. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Your soulmate could be dead or unrequited or….” She swallowed before saying it. “...or a _glitch_ , and I shouldn’t have said that.” Jane glanced up, trying to meet Rose’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“So what you’re saying is that you never once were interested in women before your timer said that your soulmate _was_ a woman,” Rose said after finishing another bite of her sandwich and slowly licking the sauce from her fingers. “Don’t worry,” she continued as she met Jane’s eyes. “I’ll use my other hand for the donuts.”

Rose completely ignored any mention Jane had made about her own soulmate situation.

Jane breathed a sigh of relief. She pushed the plate of donuts across and closer to Rose. “You can have the rest of them if you want.” Then her eyes lit up. “Or….” She bit her lower lip. “We should box the rest of them up and give them to Luisa. She likes donuts, too. She’d love these.”

Rose’s brows rose again, but her lips smoothed into an intrigued smile. “That would be a great idea.” She glanced over to the food truck. “I’ll just go get a box, shall I?”

“Yeah, just let me—” Jane swallowed another bite of her sandwich. “—finish this, and then I can—”

Rose held up a hand, stopping her before she could finish her sentence. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Take your things home, and I’ll take this to Luisa. She’ll be pleased to get a gift from you.”

It wasn’t until later that Jane realized that she hadn’t answered Rose’s final question – about not being attracted to women before Luisa, _before her timer went off for a woman_ – and she wondered why the redhead had let it slide. Then again, she felt pleased with the meeting with Rose. She’d made some blunders, but the other woman had seemed more than willing to allow for them.

All in all, Jane was certain it went well.

* * *

 _Well,_ that _was horrible,_ Rose thought as she returned to the Marbella, a carryout box with the leftover donuts still warm in her right hand, her few shopping bags dangling from her slender arm. She opened the door the suite she normally shared with her husband – and would again when he arrived in a few days, something she didn’t want to address just now – and lay the donuts on her countertop before slumping onto the sofa. The shopping bags fell from her arm onto the floor, and she untangled herself from them before curling up on her side.

As soon as she lay her head on the sofa’s arm, a knock came at the door. It took everything in her to not yell out _Who is it?_ or _Go away!_ If it were Luisa, she would gladly open the door, but she didn’t want to see anyone else. Spending time with Jane had been draining enough.

On second thought, even seeing Luisa would be unhelpful at the moment. Rose was too on edge, too frustrated that this simple waitress had figured out that she was Luisa’s soulmate, even if she _had_ thrown her off the trail. What had Luisa told her?

The knock came again, and this time, Rose pushed herself up from the sofa. She looked through the peephole, scowled, and then trained her face into a much more pleasant expression before opening the door to her favorite stepson.

Her _only_ stepson, otherwise he probably would not hold that spot.

She was _really_ not in the mood for him right now.

Her eyes flicked ever so quickly to the shopping bags on the floor next to the sofa. She could hide them, of course, but it would be much more entertaining to see his reaction if she left them where they were. Tired as she was, his frustration would make her feel a lot better. There was nothing more entertaining than getting under his skin for something that really wasn’t an issue. She almost smiled.

Almost.

“Rafael.” Rose held the door open with what she knew would not look like a forced smile no matter how much of one it was – enough training under her own stepmother’s thumb and schooling her features for lesser people, like the one currently entering her suite, wasn’t a problem. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

The door didn’t even slam shut behind him. It clicked shut all soft and gentle, which for someone who was paying attention could almost be worse. Slams alerted other people to frustration, annoyance, _fights_ , but that softness alerted no one to anything. It was much more intentional that way.

Not that Rose would do anything to Rafael. Luisa would be _very_ upset with her if she did.

“I brought you our marriage contract, like you requested.” Rafael handed Rose a folder, which she took carefully enough but did not open yet, instead watching her stepson carefully. “I tried to bring it by earlier, but I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

Rose sighed and passed him by, sitting on the sofa again. “I was taking care of your little waitress problem.” She watched as Rafael’s eyes swept what, to him, must have looked like nothing more than a pile of shopping bags and waited for what she knew his reaction would be.

Rafael’s eyes flickered with a dark, ugly flame, and his jaw clenched together as his mouth turned downward. “You took her shopping?” he asked, his voice that dangerous quiet that she knew he must have learned from his father at some point. Luisa had mentioned her father’s rage, mentioned never seeing it quite as bad again after her mother’s death, but here it was, living on in her brother. She knew it was there, but she hadn’t seen it yet. That was a good thing. If Rafael ever turned his rage on his sister, Rose couldn’t promise to keep from killing him.

Luisa would forgive her eventually, after all.

They were soulmates.

“Rose, you can’t fix a problem with staff by taking them out—”

“Who said I did?” Rose asked, her voice just as soft as Rafael’s but with its own dangerous edge so subtle that he couldn’t catch it. “There were a few things I needed to purchase.” She smiled like baring her teeth. “I was a lawyer, Rafael. I’m not foolish.”

Rafael’s teeth gritted together, fingers clenching into fists, and then he let out a deep breath, forcing himself to relax. He moved the shopping bags over to one side and sat next to Rose on the couch. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just been a day. A _lifetime_.” He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Petra’s planning a party for when Dad gets here. Did she tell you about that?”

“No,” Rose said, when what she wanted to do was remind him that she’d been busy all day. “This isn’t going to be another one of those _wear white_ affairs is it?”

Rafael groaned. “It _is_. Maybe I should have put that in our contract – big black lettering – _No white events unless it’s a wedding._ ” He shook his head. “I think they’re an excuse for her to buy more clothes. Something always ends up stained at those parties – someone knocks into her with a glass of wine and suddenly there’s a huge red spot like someone’s stabbed her in the chest. All of a sudden, she needs a new dress or shirt or….” He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He glanced to Rose’s shopping bags but didn’t show a hint of shame. “Not that there’s anything wrong with shopping when you need something. I just feel like she’s—”

”—wasting your money. I know.”

It could be said that Rose was doing the same with Emilio’s fortune, but in truth, the only time she touched his billions was for hotel renovations or interior design or a lot of other business decisions that he left up to her. They complimented each other well that way, which was why she’d lasted so much longer than most of his other wives, who _had_ squandered his fortune. When Rose wanted to do petty shopping, she used her own fortune. They thought she’d been a lawyer – the best of the best – and while there was a certain element of truth to that, most of her money came from other, less legal avenues.

Rose leaned up against the arm of the sofa again, tucked her legs up underneath her, and clasped her hands together, leaving the folder Rafael had given her in her lap. “I’ll go over this tomorrow,” she said. “It’s been a long day, and I want to give this my full attention.” She tilted her head to one side and let her red hair brush against her shoulder. “I expect you would rather I focus on _this_ than the new expansion.”

“Yes. _Please._ ” Rafael sounded almost desperate. “I want to get out of that as soon as possible so that she can’t….” He struggled with the words. _Can’t make the same mistake twice_ wouldn’t work. He didn’t have another sample. This was his only chance for a child. Rose knew that as well as Petra had, and she watched as Rafael clenched his hands into half-fists before continuing, “I want her to pay for this.”

_Solano men and their misguided ideas of vengeance._

“I’ll see what I can do.” Within the bounds of the law, of course. Rose’s fingers tapped lightly on the folder. “I’m sure I’ll find something. There’s _always_ something.”

“Thank you.”

Rose waited for him to say something else, but when there was nothing forthcoming, she asked, “Is there anything else you want from me, Rafael?”

“Have you talked to Luisa?” he asked suddenly, not even so much as glancing up. “About giving up her job?”

_Right. That._

Rose shook her head. “I haven’t yet. There hasn’t been a good time. You know your sister—”

“Right, right, I know.” Rafael nodded and then propped himself up from the couch with the balls of his hands. “That’ll be all for now, then.” He turned to Rose and offered her a smile. “Thanks, again. You’re a better stepmother than the others have been. If Dad hadn’t—”

“Don’t go there, Rafael.”

Someone else might have reached across and just touched his leg, but Rose had no such desire. She didn’t like Rafael. She wasn’t going to like Rafael. At least Emilio had a spine and a strong sense of business. Rafael…well. He was a playboy pretending to be grown up to get his daddy to like him more. It hadn’t worked out yet. There was no reason to think it ever would.

“Besides, you married Petra. That wasn’t _always_ horrible.”

“Yeah, well, look how that turned out.” Rafael spread his hands and smiled. “I’ll get out of your hair.”

_See that you do._

Rafael let himself out of the suite, and Rose slumped against the arm of the sofa once more, taking off her heels and dropping them on the floor in front of her. She left the folder containing his marriage contract with Petra on the side table. That was for tomorrow. For now, she wanted to close her eyes and pretend that the world and its complications didn’t exist for a little while.

Then came a buzz from her purse – one of her many phones – and she sighed.

Work as a crime lord was never done, was it?

* * *

Luisa’s phone jangled with the loud sounds of Beach Boys and caused her patient to stare at her curiously. An awkward and displaced look came over her, and she held up a finger. “Excuse me, that should have been off, hold on—” She pulled off her non-latex blue gloves, dropped them into the trash can, and then pulled out the phone. One glance at the name…actually, no, it _didn’t_ tell her everything, but it told her enough. “Uh, one minute, it’s….” Well, she couldn’t say _my soulmate_ , but it was still, “ _Soulmate stuff_ ,” she said finally as she slipped from her stool and exited the room.

Luisa answered the phone on what _must_ have been the final ring and heard silence on the other end before realizing that, as the person answering the phone, _she_ was supposed to say something first. “Hey, Jane, it’s kind of a bad time. I’m on my last patient; can I call you back in half an hour?”

“No, no, you don’t need to do that,” Jane said. “I just finished shopping with Rose, and I—”

Suddenly, Luisa felt like she had all the time in the world. Even though, in reality, she didn’t. She maybe needed to stay grounded in reality. Wouldn’t want to risk getting _someone else_ pregnant who didn’t want to be.

“—wondered if you, um, wanted to come over and meet my family?”

Luisa could imagine Jane curling a phone cord around her finger the way that Luisa herself used to do when she was younger and phones actually still had cords. Once, when she was shopping, she’d noticed that you could still buy corded phones, but, other than aesthetic, what was the point? Giving yourself something to do with your finger, maybe, because hers tapped nervously on her white coat as she leaned against the wall.

“Right now?”

“When you’re done with your patient. Or…or _not_ ,” Jane continued, easy as anything. “We could actually schedule a time. I’ve got a lot of – _not_ a lot of free time because my job keeps me working a lot, and when I’m not working I’m usually at school, but—”

“I should talk to Raf about that. He shouldn’t be working anyone that much. There are rules—”

“ _I need the hours_ ,” Jane said a little more forcefully than might have been absolutely necessary. Luisa imagined her brushing a hand across her forehead. “Anyway, I can understand if you’re busy after work. This is a little impromptu, but I figured…. Well, I’ve met most of your family, and you’re my soulmate, so you should meet my family. I should introduce you to them, right?”

“Right.” Luisa glanced over her shoulder back to where she knew her patient was waiting. “Text me the address, and I’ll drive straight over.” She grinned. “Well, not _straight_ , I’m not good at _straight_ , you know, being—”

“That is an _awful_ joke.”

Luisa laughed, an easy sound. “Yeah, it is.” She bit her lower lip. “I should go. Patient’s waiting.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.”

There was a pause, but it didn’t feel awkward. That was nice.

“I’ll text you the address and see you in an hour? At most?”

Luisa nodded before remembering that Jane couldn’t see her nod on the other side of the phone. “Yes. One hour. Probably even not that long. This is just a—” She winced. “Doctor-patient confidentiality, I really _can’t_ tell you what’s going on, sorry.”

“That’s okay. I didn’t want to know.”

Luisa grinned. “See you soon, Jane.”

“See you.”

Luisa made sure to turn her phone to silent before dropping it in her coat pocket. She didn’t know why she was still grinning; it wasn’t like Jane was _her_ soulmate or anything. But she couldn’t get the grin to go away, even though she took a deep calming breath, even as she returned to her last patient and what she should have been doing instead of answering her phone in the first place.

* * *

The house didn’t seem that intimidating from the outside, but that didn’t stop Luisa from feeling nervous. She’d never been great at _meet the parents_ scenarios. Even though she’d been adamantly opposed to marriage contract scenarios, she hadn’t counted herself out of luck entirely. Her soulmate timer had taken a while to restart before that last time, and in the meanwhile, she’d had dates. Met people. Liked girls.

Okay, that last one hadn’t changed.

So to say that Luisa had done the _meet the parents_ thing more than once wouldn’t be wrong. She _had_. They hadn’t gone well. In fact, the only parents Luisa hadn’t met – with the exception of Jane’s family, which would be in only a few minutes – were Rose’s. Maybe that one was more of a technicality. Rose’s father had, as she put it, drunk himself to death, and her stepmother…. Luisa _had_ met Elena, when she was very young, when _Elena_ had been married to _her_ dad.

Yeah, that still wasn’t a nice thing to think about. It kind of made her sick. Why was she thinking about that?

Luisa stood in front of the door for a few minutes before knocking, straightening her skirt, pulling off imagined pieces of lint, brushing just as imagined dirt from her shoulders, and checking in her phone with a quick selfie to make sure she looked okay. She rapped one knuckle on the front door. Her eyes moved briefly to the porch swing with a feeling of something warm swelling in her chest, but that feeling dissipated as the door opened.

She was nervous. She looked nervous. She _knew_ she looked nervous.

It didn’t help when Jane gestured her inside with one hand. She looked better outside of the waitress uniform that Rafael had finally decided on – the designs Rose had suggested had been better, more flattering, but he’d gone with what Zazu had wanted – unfortunate, really – all jeans and shirt and hair pulled back off of her neck. What could Luisa say? _She liked girls._ She was Jane’s soulmate; she was allowed to think that she was attractive.

And, no, it was _not_ a slight against Rose.

Luisa wasn’t going to tell _her_ that, though. That wouldn’t end well.

“Hey,” Luisa said as she entered. “I got here as quick as I could. You, um, you _do_ still want me here, right?”

Jane nodded quickly. “Yeah, yeah, of course I want you here. Come on in.” She shut the door behind her.

The front room was small – a little bigger than the living room in her suite at the Marbella but not bigger than one of the normal rooms and definitely not bigger than the additional suite she knew was in Rafael and Petra’s suite (comparable to the one in Rose and Emilio’s simply because they rarely if ever used theirs…which was still bigger than hers, and she _used_ hers. maybe she should talk to Raf about that). But it didn’t _feel_ small, and that was the important thing. It felt warm, cozy. Where the Marbella was all blues and greens, the front room – the _living_ room – at Jane’s house was golds and ivory instead of the much harsher white of the Marbella (which didn’t seem so harsh against the blues and greens and sea colors) with hints of passionate reds and oranges _and lace_.

Where the Marbella was the sea, Jane’s house was the desert.

But not in, like, a _bad_ way.

…better thought – where the Marbella was the sea, Jane’s house was the _beach_. Unless you had a boat and a dock at which to drop anchor, most people couldn’t live on the sea. Of course, there were boathouses and people who spent their lives sailing from one end of the world to the other and rarely stayed in one city for long _and of course, there were always exceptions_ – and, if she was really honest with herself, you couldn’t live on the beach, either. The sand washed away your foundation and your house would crumble. But you could sit on the warm beach with an umbrella over your head and smile at the swimmers and surfers on the ocean waves.

Compatible, but not a place for someone like to call home.

If the thought remained in Luisa’s mind long enough for her to think over it, she would shiver. But, my friends, that’s more for us. We know what these worlds do to her more than she does.

Jane’s home felt like a hint of cinnamon and honey mixed with vanilla and topped with a maraschino cherry. But not ice cream because Jane’s home wasn’t cold in the slightest. It was a home.

It had been years since Luisa had been part of a home.

She could just see the dining room to the left – it’s small, but cozy. Small being…smaller than the one in her apartment with Allison had been but larger than anything in any of the Marbella’s suites but definitely not as large as the actual kitchen downstairs that she still crept into to cook for herself because her brother still hadn’t gotten her a better suite like he’d promised he would (maybe she should ask Rose about that. maybe she didn’t want to live on their floor. _everyone_ was loud on their floor). It’s more red than the living room, but then that was good, wasn’t it? Red promoted hunger? Not that there was much of it that could be seen around cabinets and table and—

“Hey!”

Two women sat on the couch just in front of her, facing a television that was paused on…was that _The Passions of Santos_? Luisa didn’t watch it herself – okay, every now and again, when it was on and she hadn’t stayed late at work – but Petra was an avid viewer. Well. Petra’s _mother_ , Magda, was an avid viewer, but then that came with being an invalid shut up in her room most of the time, which Luisa still thought was odd – _not_ that Magda was an invalid but that she’d spurned each and every one of Luisa’s attempts to reach out or to help her. But then, considering some of Luisa’s track record—

“Janey, who is this?”

The younger of the two women spoke. Older sister, Luisa would have guessed, if Jane hadn’t talked about her family a little bit in their conversations over the past two weeks. In truth, she knew that was Jane’s mom. Who was also not unattractive. Not Luisa’s type, strictly speaking, but not unattractive. Now, if she’d met her when she was younger—

_No, nope, not thinking about that._

“Mom, Abuela.” Jane led Luisa around in front of the tv so that they were both facing the two women. “ _This_ is Luisa Alver.”

Luisa gave them a smile that she knew _looked_ awkward and lifted her hand in the little wave that _certainly_ didn’t help her look any _less_ awkward.

“She’s my—”

All at once, Jane’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.

“—soulmate,” Luisa finished, her voice barely above a whisper.


	7. Chapter 7

“Jane?”

Luisa felt herself shifting into _doctor in a crisis_ mode, and she held out a hand to stop the woman she’d determined was Jane’s mother from coming forward anymore as she knelt down next to Jane. “Get me a cold rag.” She turned to face Jane’s mother and continued, “I’m a medical doctor; I’ve got this; don’t worry.” As though it was _really_ easy for anyone to _not worry_ when their daughter just collapsed on the floor. The rag itself wasn’t really necessary, but it would help her feel productive and keep her out of the way.

Or _would_ have helped her feel more productive and kept her out of the way if _she’d_ been the one to go get the rag instead of _Jane’s abuela_.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Jane’s mom asked, her eyes wide and worried.

Luisa listened for Jane’s breath. “Checking to make sure she’s breathing.” She held up a hand, not answering the question, as she moved back. “She _is_ , so now we just—” Her eyes ran along Jane’s unmoving body.

“Doc, this is _not_ the time to be checking her out!”

“I’m _not_!” Really, Luisa wasn’t. “Will you unbutton her jeans for me? And unhook her bra?” She turned and met the other woman’s dark eyes, forcing herself to explain. “When people faint, it’s usually because they’re not getting enough blood to their head. We want to loosen anything constrictive – jeans that are too tight, a bra that’s too tight. I’m _not_ —”

“Got it.”

Luisa gave Jane a little bit longer examination as her mother worked at her jeans. She didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere, and she didn’t seem to have injured herself on the way down. That was good. She wasn’t _bleeding_ or anything like that. As soon as Jane’s mom moved from her waist to her chest, Luisa moved down and slowly lifted Jane’s legs. “This will help.” Her lips pressed together. “We’ll need to take her to an examining room when she wakes up.”

“What?” Jane’s mom’s head snapped up, and her eyes narrowed. “Why? I thought you said you were a doctor!”

“Yeah, I did,” Luisa said, holding Jane’s ankles up on one shoulder, “but there’s only so much I can do without—”

“Mom?! _What are you doing?_ ” Jane sat up all at once, finally conscious again, and propped herself up on her hands. She slapped her mom’s hands away from her bra before turning to face Luisa. “And what are _you_ doing? With _my legs_?” Jane scooted backward, feet falling to the ground with a loud _thunk_ , and there was a startled stream of Spanish as her abuela ran back into the room, wiping her forehead with one hand.

Luisa sighed and moved away from her, laying her hands on her knees. “You fainted.” She winced. “My first guess is that it has something to do with the baby—”

“ _Baby?!_ ” Jane’s mother turned from Jane to Luisa and then rapidly back again. “ _What_ baby?”

Luisa raised her hand and waggled her fingers. “My fault. Got her pregnant. It was an—”

“Wait.” Jane’s mom held up one hand and stared at Luisa again. Her eyes narrowed. She examined Luisa closely. “You’re a dude? Like, _physically_ a dude?”

“First of all,” Luisa started, her lips pressing together and her face taking on a frustrated expression, “no. Second of all, that’s _really_ not the proper terminology, and that’s _really_ offensive. You can’t just ask someone—”

“You said you got her pregnant! That involves _sex_!” Jane’s mom’s eyes grew wide, and then she whiplash turned back to Jane. “ _You had sex, and you didn’t tell me?_ ” She slapped her daughter’s arm.

“Mom, _no_.” Jane’s eyes moved from her mom to Luisa and then to her _abuela_ , whose mouth had dropped open. “It was a….” She looked back to Luisa. “It was a medical accident,” she said, finally, choosing her words carefully.

Luisa winced as she felt the weight of Jane’s mom’s and abuela’s stares on her. “I accidentally artificially inseminated the wrong woman. _In my defense,_ I’d just found out my wife was cheating on me and I was covering for another doctor and I was under a great deal of stress _and at least I wasn’t drinking_ —”

“And that makes it okay to get the wrong woman pregnant?” Jane’s mother growled, her eyes narrowing. “And what is this about _not drinking_?”

“ _No_ ,” Luisa said immediately, ignoring the comment on her drinking. “No, it doesn’t, it doesn’t make it okay to get the wrong woman pregnant. And it’s really not _entirely_ my fault.” She winced again. “Okay, it _is_ entirely my fault, but Petra really shouldn’t have been trying to use Raf’s sperm sample anyway because Raf was saving that sample for his soulmate and just because she’s his wife right now Petra was able to get hold of it and try to—” She shook her head rapidly. “Not important.” Then she turned to Jane. “We need to get _you_ to a hospital and make sure that you’re okay. You just fainted. That normally means you’re _not_ okay. I _think_ it’s the baby, but in case that it’s not, we should check. _You_ should check.” She bit her lip. “And you might want to button your pants again. We were trying to—”

Jane’s eyes narrowed as she quickly turned away and zipped her pants back up. “I’m sure you were trying to do whatever was medically necessary, but that’s still really gross.”

“Sorry.” Luisa brushed her hair behind one ear. “But we really _should_ go to a hospital.” She reached over, hesitated, and then pulled her hand away. “I want to make sure there isn’t anything _really_ wrong with you.” Then she winced yet again. “Not that there’s anything wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just—”

“—probably pregnant.” Jane tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Luisa said, meeting Jane’s eyes with a gentle smile that Jane seemed to return to her.

A smile that was quickly lost when her mom said, “Yeah, nothing wrong with being pregnant if you wanna be pregnant.” She took Jane’s wrist and helped her get up. “C’mon. We’ll go to the fricking hospital and get you checked out.”

“Here,” Luisa started, “let me come with you. I can—”

“No, I think you’ve done quite enough.” Jane’s mom pulled Jane to her feet and out the front door, slamming it behind them. Then, almost immediately after she did so, she tore the door open again and glared at Luisa. “And get out of our house! I don’t want to see you here when we get back!”

Luisa met Jane’s eyes through the front window, and Jane mimed texting her – good to know – as she was dragged off. Then she started to stand to go, only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up behind her and saw Jane’s abuela standing there. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, looking away. “I’m a bit of a wreck, and I’m a horrible soulmate. I didn’t mean to—”

The hand on her shoulder squeezed once, and the woman said something – _Spanish_ , it took Luisa a while to decipher which language it was – she _knew_ it, but she knew a lot of languages from traveling with her dad to his different hotels around the world, and while she wasn’t particularly rusty, she was the linguist at her clinic. It was their specialty, actually, and sometimes she spoke without guessing at what she was speaking. Allison had only wanted to speak Spanish around her family and had refused to speak it when it was just herself and Luisa, and while Luisa had learned it when she was young, since her grandmother and mother had made sure to raise her around it, the years without speaking it outside of a work context—

 _“You really want me to stay?”_ Luisa asked, hesitating over her words but becoming more sure of them as she did.

 _“Yes,”_ Jane’s grandmother said with a firm nod. _“I want you to explain to me everything. Tell me how you and Jane met, how you are getting along, and how it is that she is having this child of yours.”_

Luisa kneaded her forehead. _“Not mine,”_ she said with an awkward smile. _“But I’ll tell you everything I can.”_

* * *

The knock came at Rose’s door at precisely the _wrong_ time. Her eyes moved towards the door – Emilio would have a key card if he was here early, and Luisa would text her ahead of time, which meant that this was either Rafael or Petra. The staff knew which room was hers and knew not to interfere with it except to clean (and it was far past the time for that), and any of her _particular_ associates knew that if she needed them, she would find a way to get to them separately. They were _never_ to come to this room – with the exception of Roman Zazo, who was still not to come to the room under that stead.

Rose peeked through the peephole, and her jaw clenched just the slightest bit. _Petra._ Still, at least it wasn’t Rafael again.

_“You’ve been silent. Is something wrong?”_

_“Nothing’s wrong, Mutter,”_ Rose murmured, _“but I need to answer this.”_

_“You need to stay on the phone with me.”_

_“I can’t ignore my stepdaughter-in-law.”_ Rose raised her eyebrows, even though Elena couldn’t see it, and her lips pressed together in a thin line. _“Not if I’m to keep on top of everything. And at this stage in our plan—”_

_“Yes, fine, go. I will call you when I need you. Be sure to answer this time.”_

_“Of course, Mutter.”_ But by then Rose knew that Elena had already hung up the phone. It was only expected that her underlings would answer her every beck and call – and that included Rose, regardless of the fact that Rose was a crime lord in her own right. Elena would say that everything Rose had was given to her from her own group of associates, but that was not entirely true. Rose built her own team from people she trusted, throwing out Elena’s associates when she could. There were only a few of them left on the outskirts of her own plan, and that one….

Rose kept her plan tight to her chest. It depended solely on her own abilities and the manipulation of her people to what and where she needed them to be and do.

But now was not the time to think about that.

Rose opened the door to her favorite stepdaughter-in-law – her _only_ stepdaughter-in-law, not that Luisa and Allison had split, but even then, Petra had always been her favorite. It was hard to like the woman fucking her soulmate. Rose might be married to Luisa’s father, but at least Luisa knew she didn’t love him. With Luisa’s heart, however….

“Petra.” Rose smiled and gestured inside, although the blonde didn’t wait for the invitation before walking into the room. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

But Petra didn’t answer the question, instead replying with one of her own. “Was that German you were speaking just now?” She turned just as the door shut quietly behind them. “I couldn’t understand much of it through the door, but it sounded like you were talking with your mother?” Her eyes narrowed, but she continued to smile. “I thought she was dead?”

“You know German?” Rose asked, continuing their conversation of questions.

Petra’s smile grew cold. “I know the word _mutter_.”

“I’m sure you do.” Rose’s head tilted to one side. “How can I help you, Petra? I’m sure you’re here for something.” She walked past the other woman and sat on her customary end of the couch, gesturing to the other. “Let’s talk.”

If pressed, Rose could come up with a million and one reasons why she might be on the phone mentioning _mother_ with someone else in German. As Petra well knew, Emilio had hotels across the globe, and while he usually set the pace for when and where a new hotel location might be, he’d given occasionally given Rose permission to do that in his stead. She was smart. She’d proven herself.

She’d also kept any and all conversation about her own family history to a minimum. As far as the Solanos knew, both of her parents were long dead, and Rose was on her own. Only Luisa knew any better, and only then because, as her soulmate, she was legally incapable of using that information against her…and _personally_ incapable of the same. Luisa couldn’t hurt her just like she couldn’t hurt Luisa.

But that was an entire other conversation.

Rose watched as Petra perched herself on the very edge of the opposite end of the couch, one long leg crossing over the other. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think it was an invitation, but Rose had never looked at Petra with any of that sort of interest – not just because she was married to Emilio, not just because she was in love with another woman, but also because leggy blondes weren’t her type the way they seemed to be for everyone else in this family.

The blonde in question lifted her hand as though holding a drink, though none had been – and none would be – offered. “Luisa suggested I come speak with you,” she said, shifting so that her legs curled up just underneath her. “Considering everything that has happened, she thought it best that I make the most out of what time was left in my contract.”

Rose’s smile froze in place, and her head tilted ever so gently to one side. “What?”

“Luisa, being my _very good friend_ , suggested—”

There came a roaring in her ears so loud that Rose couldn’t quite hear the rest of what Petra said. In fact, she was certain that the rest of it didn’t matter. Her jaw clenched together as she watched the other woman’s lips move; she forced herself to relax when she noticed the blonde’s gaze move over to her. The folder Rafael had left with their marriage contract was just in the other room. She’d started going through it earlier – before Elena’s call – but there weren’t many loopholes for what he wanted. They’d had a master go through and tighten up the language as much as possible before they’d signed it.

— _her_. They’d had _her_ go through it with a fine-toothed comb, though she hadn’t remembered all of the changes she’d made. The only thing she’d seen so far that Petra could do to violate the contract was what she’d already suggested to Rafael – an affair. In fact, it would be far easier to give _Petra_ advice in this situation than it would be to help Rafael. Not that she was choosing sides.

_Luisa, what are you thinking?_

“Do you have a copy of your contract handy?” Rose asked. “I’d be willing to go over it and let you know what I find.”

“Here.” Petra pulled a little blue flash drive out of her purse and held it out for her. “I’d figured you’d rather have an electronic copy than a paper one. All of the highlighting and word searches and…whatever that lawyer stuff you do is.”

Rose took the flash drive. Another copy of their contract to add to the pile. Great. She placed it on the side table. “Anything else?”

“Not right now,” Petra said. She stood, brushed a hand across her short shorts, and turned to leave, then paused. She turned back with a smile that seemed a little less menacing than her earlier one had. “Although I was thinking, it might be nice to have one of our little get-togethers soon. You, me, Luisa. Especially after all that she’s been through with Allison recently. She might enjoy the pick me up.”

Rose smiled, and although she knew it didn’t seem that way, there was nothing _happy_ about the smile. “Give me a date, and I’ll see what I can do.” Her smile softened. “I don’t think there’s enough time before Emilio gets here, but I’m sure I can arrange some time away in a few weeks. You know how he monopolizes me.”

“Oh, I know.” Petra continued to smile, and whatever warmth there was appeared to be slowly disappearing. “I’ll get out of your hair. I’m sure you have much more important things to attend to than talk with me.”

Rose didn’t try to convince her otherwise and, in fact, didn’t say anything else as she watched the other woman leave. She pushed a hand through her red hair and glared at the ceiling before pulling her phone back out. It was all too easy to make the phone call, her teeth gritting together as she went immediately to voice mail. She tried to still her anger, but she could hear it creeping into her voice anyway as she said, her voice icy, “ _Luisa. Call me. We need to talk._ ”


	8. Chapter 8

There was a certain level of straight panic that Luisa felt when she heard the message Rose left for her – _but we aren’t to that point yet._ Let us rewind.

“She’s pregnant!” Xo slammed the door behind her, only for it to be reopened a few minutes later by Jane, the pregnant woman in question, who shut the door and locked it behind her. “That freaking doctor got her pregnant!”

“She’s my _soulmate_ , Mom,” Jane corrected as she followed her mother into the kitchen. “She’s not just _that freaking doctor_ ,” she mimicked her mother’s hand motions, “and I’d really appreciate it if you would use her name instead of—”

“She got you pregnant, Jane. Your soulmate doesn’t just knock you up and then abandon you!”

She hated the words. Hated saying them. Hated the hypocritical taste of them on her tongue.

Jane didn’t notice. She never noticed.

“ _She didn’t abandon me, Mom_ ,” Jane continued instead, because that was what was most important to her, what she saw straight in front of her eyes. “ _She was right here. With me. Being introduced to you._ ” Jane sighed and kneaded her forehead with one hand. “See, _this_ is why I didn’t want to tell you. I _knew_ you would overreact!”

Xo pulled a drink from the fridge and took a swig. “You’re a virgin, and you’re pregnant, and you didn’t want to be pregnant, and _I’m_ overreacting. The least you could have done was have sex and make the baby the fun way.” All of a sudden, her eyes narrowed. “How long did you know?”

She wanted Jane to bite her lower lip. She wanted her daughter to be embarrassed of how she handled the situation. She wanted her to be even the slightest bit apologetic.

She also knew better than to hope for any of those things.

“Two weeks,” Jane said, meeting her mother’s eyes.

Xo looked at her daughter, opened her mouth to say something, and then saw a movement over by the couch. Her mouth shut, and she pushed past Jane to where she finally noticed Luisa still sitting on their living room couch. “And what are _you_ still doing here?” The freaking doctor had a mug of tea in her hands. Tea was okay. _Jane_ liked tea better than coffee, which sometimes made her wonder if she was really her child or not. (Not really. Parents just said shit like that sometimes. It was always a joke.) Must have been that _soulmate_ thing. Xo’s stomach tightened. “I thought I told you to get out of my house!”

“ _Our_ house,” Jane corrected again. Her eyes met Luisa’s in what Xo guessed was some sort of silent support.

Luisa glanced down at her mug, stirred whatever was in it with a little spoon, and pressed her lips together with a little nod. “Alba asked me to stay.” She looked up and met Jane’s eyes again with a little smile. “She wanted to know everything that happened, so I explained as much to her as I could.”

“Everything you’ve told me?” Jane asked.

Luisa nodded.

“What didn’t she tell you?” Xo asked, her eyes narrowing again. It seemed that whatever part of the story Jane told her, she _hadn’t_ heard everything, even though Jane had said she’d told her as much as she could. “What didn’t _you_ tell _me_?”

“About my soulmate?” Luisa asked, still meeting Jane’s eyes.

“About your soulmate.” Jane pulled a partially eaten sandwich out of the fridge and took a bite, grimaced, and then kept eating it anyway. Waste not. She gave Xo a strange look. “It wasn’t important, and _besides_ ,” she continued, moving from the kitchen to the living room, where she sat next to Luisa, “there are some things that you don’t share with anyone other than your soulmate.” She took Luisa’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t know who she is. I don’t _need_ to know who she is.” Then she laughed, an awkward sound. “I actually thought it was Rose, but she was _not_ happy with that accusation.” Her eyes narrowed. “By the way, your stepmother is really.... I don’t know.”

Jane didn’t see it, but Xo did – the way Luisa’s eyes widened when she mentioned saying Rose was her soulmate.

No point in asking. She knew what it meant to lie about your soulmate. There was no point in hating Jane’s soulmate for doing the same thing _she’d_ been doing for years. All of Jane’s life.

In that moment, she hated Luisa. In that moment, she spared her.

“Sounds like Rose,” Luisa said, glancing down at her mug. When she looked back up at Xo, she seemed normal. She must not have noticed that she had been seen. “I’m sorry, but it’s…it’s not important.”

Xo knew the sound, the feel of a lie. She knew it best when it was being used to protect herself – or her soulmate. That was the sound she heard in Luisa’s tone now, and while she still didn’t like it, she knew she wouldn’t push, the same way she wouldn’t want Jane to push her if she ever noticed it in her own voice. Whatever was going on with Luisa’s soulmate – whatever was going on with this Rose person – it _was_ important, but it wasn’t for her to ask.

_The freaking doctor’s soulmate was her freaking stepmother. She really didn’t want to ask._

Xo took a deep breath. “Fine.” She moved to the other side of the kitchen and placed her hand on the back of one of the chairs. “Jane said there were some extenuating circumstances and that you told her about the pregnancy almost immediately. She said you let her choose, and while I’m _not_ okay with you making that mistake with my daughter, I’m glad you let her know.” She turned to Jane. “I’m not glad you didn’t tell us, but—”

“It wasn’t your decision.” Jane placed a hand protectively across her stomach. “Besides, I already knew what you would say. You would tell me to get rid of it and not let my life turn out like yours had because I hadn’t done anything wrong. Abuela would tell me to keep it because it’s a child who needs someone to let it live, even if while I was deciding it…really wasn’t anything yet. There wasn’t any point in making it a group discussion.” She took another bite of her sandwich and grimaced again, holding it away from her and staring at it. “I bought this earlier with Rose, and I _knew_ when I put it in the fridge that it would taste absolutely horrible when I took it back out, but I’m still here, with this cold sandwich, trying to eat it.”

Luisa took the sandwich from Jane’s hand and then hesitated. “Do you mind?”

“No,” Jane said, waving one hand. “Go ahead.”

Luisa took a bite and grimaced the same as Jane had. “This is horrible.”

“I _told you_ it was horrible.”

“C’mon,” Luisa said, standing and brushing her hands across her skirt after setting the unfinished sandwich on their coffee table. “Let’s go get another one. I’ll pay.” She took Jane’s hand and interlaced their fingers as she helped her up off the couch. “People will tell you that you have to start getting used to eating for two, but I’ve found it’s not that hard. It’s the getting used to the cravings that’s the weird part.” Then she smiled.

Xo watched as Jane looked at her, and her heart hurt. She watched as they left, and she didn’t say anything. She watched as Luisa threw the rest of the bad sandwich away, and she wanted to make a comment about rich people and wasting money, but she didn’t. It might have still been true, but she didn’t say it.

Mostly she was just glad that the lying freaking doctor wasn’t in her house anymore. Maybe, in a little bit, she would be less upset, but right now, she just wasn’t. And woe be to anyone who tried to keep her from being frustrated until it worked its way out of her system.

Xo glanced down at her own timer, which had zeroed out long before Jane was born. Her lips pressed together. It had been years since she’d seen him. Her soulmate. The man who knocked her up and then abandoned her.

…before last Tuesday, anyway.

* * *

The line wasn’t as long this time when Jane took Luisa to the food truck. She saw that creepy regular there again – she didn’t know his name, but she knew he was a detective – he was blond and he was there a lot and he’d asked her out once a few years ago but hadn’t been too abruptly frustrated or mad when she explained that she had no plans to date anyone other than her soulmate – and waved at him. He saw her, smiled, and waved back. For as long as she’d known him – and she didn’t really know him – his time was nothing but firm dashes. Zeroed out. She’d never wondered about that before, but she did, briefly, now.

The timers seemed to set people up more for heartbreak than the sort of heart glowing immediate requited happiness that telenovelas and other stories seemed to suggest that they did. Maybe she knew that before, but she didn’t really _know_ it like she did now, deep in the heavy thick of her bones.

“They sell donuts here?” Luisa asked, her eyes widening as they made it close enough to see the menu. She turned to Jane. “Are they any good?”

Jane blinked as she felt a strong sense of déjà vu. “Rose wanted the donuts, too,” she said, her voice soft, hesitant. “I had a few of them, but they weren’t nearly as good as the funnel cake ones we had…you know.” She didn’t smile. “You can get some, too, if you want.”

“Oh, no. No, that’s okay.” Luisa’s expression became that awkward smile she sometimes wore. “I just… _really_ like donuts. You know? How you have that one food that, no matter when you have it, you always feel like everything’s going to be okay? Or everything’s going right with the world?” Her smile softened. “That’s donuts for me. It used to be goldfish – actually,” and here she laughed a little bit, “it still _is_ goldfish, but there’s only so many kinds of goldfish, and every place that makes donuts, they’re a little bit different and taste a little bit more wonderful, and, I don’t know, I just…like trying them.” They made it to the front as she rambled. “But you wanted a sandwich, right? Which one do you normally get? Should I get one, too? Which one should I get?”

Jane sighed and made the order for them. “Just one sandwich,” she said, turning to Luisa, “because it’s big enough to share, and,” she continued, her lips quirking up into an almost grin, “we can get a plate of donuts. _As long as you share._ More than Rose did, because she—”

“—ate the whole thing,” Luisa finished the sentence at the same time Jane said it. Then she winced. “I know that sounds strange, my knowing my stepmother that well, but Petra and I, we’re her only friends. Most of her old schoolmates didn’t want anything to do with her after she married Dad. They thought she was just after his money. She’s not.”

Jane took her lemonade and the plate with the sandwich on it while Luisa took her bottle of water and the smaller plate of donuts. Something about what Luisa was saying felt off, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what. Still, it made sense. If one of Jane’s friends – if _Lina_ – had suddenly out of the blue married a man twice her age, she’d think it had something to do with the money, too. It wouldn’t matter how much Lina said it didn’t. Jane would always be suspicious. Then again, Jane wouldn’t have been so suspicious that she stopped meeting with her best friend over it, either. Maybe Rose just had really bad friends.

Which, of course, would mean that she would want to protect her good friends – like Luisa – all the more zealously.

The two of them went to what Jane thought must have been the same planter where she’d sat with Rose earlier. The two plates sat between them until Jane handed one half of the sandwich to Luisa, took her own, and then placed it under the plate of donuts. She sipped at her lemonade. The donuts didn’t seem as appealing as they did earlier, and they hadn’t looked very good then.

“You know what?” Luisa asked all at once before taking a bite of her half of the sandwich. “We should have a get-together – you, me, Rose, and Petra. I don’t know how long Rose’s contract with Dad will last, and Petra’s should be up within the year, but we’re….” She hesitated and then smiled. “We’re family. Or, at least, as much as we can be without all of the soulmate connections.”

There it was again – the feeling that something Luisa was saying was _wrong_ , was _off_ , was _not completely honest_. But Jane couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. She pressed her lips together. “It’s you,” she said finally.

“What?” Luisa said around a mouthful of sandwich. Her brow furrowed as she swallowed. “What’s me?”

“You asked me who was a better kisser – you or your brother.” Jane looked up and met Luisa’s eyes. “It’s you. But don’t tell him I said that.”

Luisa’s expression turned smug, and she leaned back just the slightest bit. “I won’t tell him _you_ said it.” Her gaze shifted away, and there was a twinkle of mischief. “But I’ll tell him. Just so he knows. Because he _should_ know.” She sighed. “If he’d taken my lessons, I’m sure he’d be so much better. But he’s a guy, and you know how guys are.” Then she stopped, her eyes widening. “Not that _I_ know what guys are like. I just have an idea.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m…I’m _rambling_ again.” Her eyes met Jane’s again. “Are you okay?”

“Just thinking.” Jane watched as Luisa took another bite of her sandwich, only for a little bit of the mustard and mayonnaise mixture to be left behind on the corner of her lips. When Luisa tried to get it with her tongue and kept missing, Jane reached forward and wiped at it with her thumb. “Here.” She glanced down at her thumb before moving it gently across Luisa’s lips. “Better?”

Luisa’s tongue flicked out and brushed gentle across Jane’s skin. “Much. Thank you.”

“Mmhm.” Jane swallowed past the lump in her throat and took another bite of her own sandwich. She could feel the same spatter at the edge of her own lips, but before she could make a motion to swipe it off, Luisa leaned forward and kissed it away.

Jane could feel her face flush a bright red as the blood rose to her cheeks. She turned just the slightest bit, her heart pounding hard in her chest as her nose brushed against Luisa’s. It was easy – all too easy – for her lips to part as she kissed her soulmate. Luisa tasted of cinnamon and honey and that dusting of sugar and fried dough that made up the donuts she’d just gotten – and the slightest bit of mustard still lingering from their sandwich. Or maybe that was her – Jane tried not to think about it, but she probably tasted of the sandwich and onions and lemonade – and there was no way that could be good.

She ended the kiss quick after that, thinking she was making things bad again, though not as bad as their first time, but Luisa pressed forward for another kiss, cupping her face with one hand. Her thumb brushed against Jane’s cheekbone, her lips curving into a smile that Jane could feel against her own as she finally pulled away. “Okay?” Luisa asked, her voice soft, her eyes searching Jane’s.

“Better than okay,” Jane murmured, her face still flushed a bright red.

Luisa maintained her smile as she settled back to her spot. “My dad should be coming into town later this week,” she said, holding her half-eaten half of her sandwich with one hand. “Petra’s throwing a party at the Marbella, and—”

“I have to work,” Jane said, and she winced. “I can try and avoid interrupting, if that’s what—”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant!” Luisa waved her free hand in front of her. “I was wondering, since I’m your soulmate, if you’d like to meet him. To let me introduce you, I mean.” Her cheeks turned a bright red. “Not because of Rafael or the baby or anything like that – I don’t have to tell any of them any of that, because I know you’re still trying to keep it a secret – but, since I’m your soulmate, since we’re….” She paused, not finishing the thought, before continuing, “I’d like you to meet him. If you want to meet him. If you’d still like to be part of the family. I mean, I’m okay with you being part of the family. You _do_ want to meet everyone, don’t you?”

Jane nodded, but it was hesitant. She winced again. “I told Rose.”

Luisa blinked. “You told Rose what.”

“About the baby.” Jane bit her lower lip. “She won’t tell anyone, will she? She knows to keep it a secret, doesn’t she? Can I trust her?”

“Of course, you can trust Rose!” Luisa said all at once, almost immediately. “She’s my— She’s the family lawyer, so she’s one of the most trustworthy of all of us. She doesn’t tell people’s secrets.” She laughed, but it didn’t sound happy. “She doesn’t tell _anyone_ ’s secrets. She’s…very good at secrets, Rose is.” She brushed her fingers through her wavy brown hair, pushing it back behind one ear. “You don’t have to worry about that. No one needs to know until you want them to know. No one else needs to know at all.”

Jane watched Luisa’s actions – nervous – and her head tilted to one side. “Do you not _want_ anyone else to know?”

Luisa shook her head. “They already know – not about you, but about the baby – and introducing you to Dad, then they’ll know that you’re my soulmate. If you spend time with us, they’ll know you’re pregnant, but I don’t think they’d assume a connection between the two. They wouldn’t make that leap.” She pressed her lips together. “I don’t mind them knowing, but,” and she reached out, placing her hand on Jane’s, “I’ve already taken so much from you. I don’t want to take that, too.” She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “My family is complicated. _This_ is complicated. I don’t want to drag you into something that’s not—”

“Luisa.” Jane turned her hand over beneath her soulmate’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I want them to know. Eventually. IF we’re a family, like you say we could be, then….” She shook her head. “Eventually I’ll have to tell people. Otherwise they’ll think…they’ll think things of me that aren’t true. Reputation, you know?”

Luisa’s eyes narrowed and shifted away. Jane could almost see the numbers and symbols and equations running through her head. Then she got it, and she turned back, her eyes wide. “You’re a virgin.”

“Yes. And I want to stay that way until I’m married.” Jane pressed her lips together. “I always assumed that would be to my soulmate, but that’s…. It’s all very complicated and I don’t expect that from you when you’re still working through whatever’s going on with _your_ soulmate and it’s just….” Her hand tightened its hold on Luisa’s, probably painfully so, but Luisa didn’t move. Probably that whole doctor thing. She must be used to this. “I thought my life would be on a path that it’s not on.”

Luisa nodded once. “So you take things one day at a time,” she said, her voice soft. “I don’t think any of us really ends up exactly where we think we will. Life’s not like that.” Her eyes shifted to her drink – a little plastic bottle of water – and her smile faded. “But water is still good for you, and this sandwich,” she lifted it before taking a bite and swallowing, “is still good, and donuts are still sweet, and we’re still here. Together. So things have a tendency to work out okay.” She gave Jane’s hand another squeeze. “You just have to learn to enjoy your path while it’s happening.”

“It makes a good story, at least,” Jane said, and she felt herself relaxing. “You said the party was…not tomorrow, but—”

“Friday.” Luisa sighed. “And I understand if you don’t want to meet him so soon, but—”

“I’d love to,” Jane found herself saying, and she was surprised to find that it was true. “Rose was…weird, but kind of sweet, and your brother seems like kind of an egocentric ass – sorry.”

“Don’t worry.” Luisa waved her empty hand. “He is. He’ll say he’s not – and, to be fair, he _does_ have a few good points – _not as many as me_ ,” she said with a smile and that twinkle in her eye. “But he is. No offense.”

Jane laughed – a small thing. “I’d like to meet your dad. I hope,” she continued, half-smiling, “that he’s more like you than he is like your brother.”

Luisa winced and made a _tsk_ ing sound between her teeth. “He’s not. He’s more like Raf. But he’s more confident and self-assured and….” She paused, as though trying to think of the right word before stumbling across it. “Family is everything to him. You’re my soulmate and the mother of Raf’s child. To him, you’ll be family. He’ll take care of you just like he takes care of us…even if you don’t always want it.” She looked down, searching her hands for something and finding nothing. “He tries really hard.”

“I think all parents do.” Jane reached over and squeezed Luisa’s knee. “Even Rose. She seems to really care about you.” She moved back a little bit. “In a very low key threatening kind of way.”

“Oh, that’s just the lawyer thing.” Luisa waved her hand again. “She’s harmless. I mean, she can make a mean lawsuit, but she won’t _actually_ hurt you.” Her smile seemed tight, fake almost. “So, tell me what the doctor said,” she said, leaning forward. “Was I right? Are you actually pregnant?”

“Yes,” Jane said, and then she held up her hand, “but you have to tell me what you told Abuela. I want to make sure our stories are straight.”

“Jane, I don’t think our stories _can_ be straight. You know, considering—” Luisa pulled out her phone as she spoke and then held up a hand with one finger up. “Give me a second. I think this is important.”

“Sure.” Jane watched, eating, as Luisa held the phone to her ear, watched as her expression shifted from something relaxed and happy to something completely other than. “What’s wrong?” she asked as Luisa shut the phone.

Luisa shook her head. “It’s nothing. I mean, it’s _not_ nothing, it’s something, but it’s my own little slice of something and I don’t want to talk about it, so please don’t ask me about it again because if you do, I’ll end up talking about it, and I don’t want to talk about it.” Her eyes fell to the donuts, and she winced again. “Let’s just,’ her eyes widened, and she took a deep breath, “get our stories straight – or, uh, _not_ straight,” and she tried to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes, “and then I can…. I can take care of this.” She looked at her phone and shook her head. “Or I can take care of this tomorrow. Or I can take care of this…not _never_ , I have to take care of this, probably sooner is better, so I should take care of this today unless something else comes up and I hope nothing else comes up because if something comes up I’ll have to take care of it tomorrow and if I end up not taking care of it tomorrow then I’ll have to take care of it on _Friday_ and that would really put a damper on…on everything, so take care of this today and then—”

“ _Luisa._ ” Jane reached over and squeezed her hand, rough enough to make Luisa stop and look at her. “It’s okay. You’re going to be fine. Enjoy the journey, right?”

Luisa took a deep breath, stilling herself, and then nodded. “Yeah. Enjoy the journey.” She grabbed her bottle and took a big gulp of water. “Enjoy the journey, got it, right. I said that. That’s true. I should really do that.” Her eyes flicked up. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.” Jane searched her eyes but refused to ask, even though she _really, really_ wanted to. “So, tell me what you told Abuela. We’ll just take this a little bit at a time, okay?”

Luisa nodded. “A little bit at a time. Got it.” She took a deep breath. “So I told your abuela….”


	9. Chapter 9

In all fairness, Luisa should have called Rose as soon as she got the message. Okay, _not_ as soon as she got the message because who knew who could be listening or what Rose wanted to talk about and there were certain things that they talked about that weren’t great for public conversations and given that Jane had said she’d _asked Rose if she was Luisa’s soulmate_ , she was probably not the person Luisa wanted to be calling Rose in front of because she would maybe pick up on more stuff than she already had and there was probably – most definitely – a point past which Rose telling her off would only reinforce what Jane believed and Luisa needed to try and avoid that _as much as possible_. So maybe not as soon as she got the message, but maybe as soon as she left Jane when they’d finished eating and gotten their stories _not straight but straight_ – she was still proud of that joke; Rose would be proud of her, the wordplay, she’d like that – but she _hadn’t_ called Rose after she left Jane, she’d figured she would be able to find her just fine in the Marbella and then they could have whatever the conversation was and she was _anxious_ because there were thousands of things that conversation could be about and most of all she was worried about _Jane guessing that Rose was her soulmate and directly asking Rose about it_ —

Oh, wait.

Okay, there was enough time to have another conversation. This was important. Rose would understand that this was important. _Really_ important. And she could find her tomorrow. Rose would be okay with tomorrow, wouldn’t she? Yeah. Of course, she would. That would give her time to cool down and then maybe this wouldn’t be as…big as Luisa felt it was.

Talk to Rose tomorrow. Good game plan.

* * *

“Rafael!” Luisa didn’t skid to a stop next to her brother only because she was wearing heels, and if _you’ve_ ever tried to skid across tiled floor on heels, you’d know that was a really _really_ bad idea. She didn’t feel like falling on her ass today if she could help it. Not that that didn’t mean there wasn’t still an element of rushing to meet with him or the slight pinwheeling of her hands to help maintain her balance when she stopped. “Hey, can I talk to you? For a second?”

Her brother turned to her, blinked a couple of times, and then nodded. “Sure. What’s up?” But even in asking that, Rafael had already started walking away from the main floor to a more secret location. Okay, it wasn’t really _secret_ because there were no truly secret locations in the Marbella – not from Rose, anyway, and Luisa blamed her for that, even though she hadn’t exactly been involved in the initial building of the hotel – there were just ones that were more private in terms of being away from the customers.

Luisa laced her fingers together, thinking of the best way to word her request without giving away more than she intended. “Can I switch suites?” she asked before jumping into what she knew was an awkward – and yet still accurate – explanation. “You put me next to Zazu, and he’s been having a girl up there pretty frequently, and as much as you know I enjoy a good lay, that girl is _not_ getting a good lay, and I don’t think he would appreciate me bursting in and trying to teach him better techniques for pleasing his girlfriend.”

It occurred to her as she spoke that if she could hear Zazu and Petra through the walls then it was just as likely that he could hear her and Rose. She hadn’t really considered that before. There was a certain element of _okay_ to that, though – Zazu being one of Sin Rostro’s cronies and all and the sheer fact that, often, _she_ was louder than _Rose_.

But the fact that Zazu hadn’t asked for a rearrangement of his suite or a relocation was now making her uncomfortable. It was like thinking about guys getting off to lesbian porn. _Was he getting off listening to them?_ Really awkward. _Really want to move to a different suite now, Raf, please and thank you._

“You can’t just _not_ say anything to him? Her? _Them?_ ” Rafael asked, pulling the sleeves of his shirt down, one covering the ticking timer etched into his wrist.

Luisa sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Raf, it’s been over two weeks and I’ve been good about keeping my mouth shut this long, but if I keep having to listen to that, well, you know me.” She tried to smile, but it felt more like gritting her teeth. “I used to give _you_ pointer when you were in the bedroom next door. You know how that turned out.”

“Yeah, you stole my girlfriends.” Raf pressed his lips together and met Luisa’s eyes. “Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe you could steal _his_ girlfriend. Have a little rebound after Allison. It might make you feel better.”

“ _Ew_ , no. I don’t want to have sex with—”

_Good catch there, Luisa, cutting yourself off. That’s not suspicious at all._

“— _any_ of Zazu’s girls. He’s smarmy. If they’re attracted to _that_ , they’ve got issues. And _I’ve_ got issues, Raf.” Luisa reached over and patted her brother’s arm. It was a lie – and she knew Rafael suspected it but wouldn’t question it. She didn’t care about taking Zazu’s girls and showing them a good time; she’d done it before with great success. She just, you know, it was _Petra_ , which Raf didn’t know, and which Raf _couldn’t_ know, and which she’d given Petra advice about _but still didn’t want to know_ , but she couldn’t just _say that_. She patted her brother’s arm again. “Get me a new room.”

“Yeah, okay.” Rafael picked at his timer so quick that Luisa almost didn’t catch it. “Not next to Zaz. Not next to Dad and Rose. Not next to me. Do you want your own floor?”

Luisa shook her head. “Nah. I’m not _that_ picky.” She tapped her fingers along her chin. “But if I could have a kitchen this time, that would be great. And not just one of those half-kitchenette… _things_. A full kitchen. You know I like to cook, and since you don’t like me cooking in the main kitchens—”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Rafael sighed and kneaded his forehead, an almost perfect imitation of his sister. “Give me a couple of days. With Dad getting her tomorrow and the party on Friday and _Petra_ —”

“Wait.” Luisa paused. “Dad gets here tomorrow?”

Raf stared at her, unblinking. “Yeah, Petra always gives him some time with Rose and to get over jetlag before throwing the party. I thought you knew that.”

“Oh, right. Yeah.” She _did_ know that. But with everything going on, she’d forgotten. Absolutely forgotten. She winced. Rose would be too busy with him tomorrow for them to have that discussion. Oh well?

Rafael, for his part, missed the wince as he continued. “ _Anyway_ , there’s a lot going on, and you know I’ll have to personally clean out the minibar in your new room, and—”

“You don’t have to do that,” Luisa said, her voice soft. “I won’t touch it.”

“Yeah, I do.” Rafael sighed again. “Especially with everything that’s going on. I don’t want you to feel like—”

“I don’t. Honestly, Raf. I’ll be fine.”

Rafael shook his head. “But just in case.” He tried to smile, and it seemed like he was forcing himself to try and relax. “You can make it a few more days, right? I can have you in something else by the end of the week.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Luisa said, meeting her brother’s eyes. “Last time you said that, I was stuck in the same room for.... Wait, I’m still there.” Her eyes narrowed. “End of the week, Raf. Seriously. If you don’t do it, I’ll get Dad involved.”

Rafael groaned. “Please don’t do that.”

“Find me a new room, and I won’t.”

Truth be told, she wouldn’t anyway. Luisa wasn’t the sort to actually get their dad involved in Rafael’s affairs if she could help it. Their relationship had enough trouble without her getting him into trouble or trying to pull favors. Not that she wanted favors. She didn’t want a lot of things. She took a deep breath and sighed again. “Oh, and let Petra know I’m thinking about a little girls’ get-together, would you? Have her check her calendar? There’s someone I’d like her to meet.”

Rafael’s eyes widened. “Do you have a new girlfriend?” Then his eyes narrowed. “Why does Petra get to meet your new girlfriend before I do? Do you not trust me?”

“ _Hah._ ” Luisa rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t let me meet Petra for _months_ because you thought I would steal her away from _you_. Trust me, I don’t have anything to worry about.” Her eyes narrowed. “And I don’t have a girlfriend; I just got a divorce; life is _hard_ right now; I just—”

_—am lying my ass off when I’m planning to introduce Jane to Dad on Friday._

She didn’t want to keep lying. There were enough secrets. She could drop this one. Especially since she would be soon anyway.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Luisa said, her voice hushed, “but I…I may be someone’s soulmate.” Her lips pressed together, and she looked up at Raf. “I’m planning on introducing her to Dad at the party – and to you, and to Petra – but I wanted to wait until everyone was together.” She tried to smile and whapped Raf’s arm. “So Petra’s not going to meet her before you do, dork. You’re going to meet her together. On Friday.”

As she spoke, Luisa watched Raf’s eyes widen and a big smile come over his face. “Luisa, that’s amazing!” He clapped her shoulders – the way their father often did with him. It was meant to be a gesture of pride and happiness, but with their dad, it was less so. From Raf now, it felt good but wrong somehow. Still, his eyes twinkled, and that felt right. And yet there was pain there. “It’s great that you’ve…got another soulmate?” His words took on a questioning tone.

“No, no, not like that.” Luisa lifted her timer and shoed where it was still picked at, still all dashes. “This hasn’t changed. She’s not mine; I’m hers.”

“Well, that’s close enough,” Rafael said. “It’s better than nothing.” He grimaced. “Better than Allison. You have at least one half.” He stared down at her timer. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened last time? With the woman at the bar?”

Luisa’s eyes widened. She’d told Rafael a little more than she’d meant – no, not more than she’d meant, she’d wanted to tell him a lot more – but after finding out about everything going on with Rose, she’d had to keep her mouth shut. She’d only told him about meeting her, about how beautiful she was, about the wonderful sex – at which point Raf had made a disgusted face and refused to listen to any more of it. Probably a good thing. _Definitely_ a good thing. She knew her brother didn’t remember any of the descriptions; he’d probably tried to block as much of it from his mind as he could. So he couldn’t have guessed—

“No,” Luisa said, her voice as firm as she could make it. She may have told Jane that her soulmate was married to someone else, but she hadn’t told Raf. She knew he thought it was because it was too painful for her to explain, and that was the easiest way to go about it. She certainly couldn’t tell him she was still regularly seeing her. It wouldn’t go well. “I really don’t want to talk about it, Raf.”

Rafael shrugged. “Okay.” Then he grinned. “You want a new suite to _impress her_ , don’t you? Your new soulmate?” His eyes sparkled. “I’ll make sure it’s set up perfectly for the two of you. I’ve got an eye for this sort of thing.” He winked and then winced. “Okay, _Rose_ has an eye for this sort of thing, but she’s given me a lot of pointers and—”

“You don’t have to do all of that.” Luisa stopped him before he could continue. “Just the suite. That’s all. Really, Raf.” She leaned forward and pecked his cheek. “And I know you still have a few months left on your timer, but,” she took his wrist, moved his sleeve, and held the ticking numbers in front of him, “you’ll have one, too. You don’t have much longer to wait now.”

It was easy – too easy – to see that grin on her brother’s face and know that she’d said something good. Something _right_. So what if Rose needed to talk to her? This, here, was her baby brother, going through a hard time just like she was going through a hard time and probably needing a pick me up just like she needed a pick me up.

She’d talk to Rose on Friday. They’d make time.

“Hey, why don’t we go do something?” Luisa asked, her smile brightening. “Just the two of us. Something stupid. _Bowling_ , we could go bowling. Or roller-skating.” She squeezed his hand. “Something to get our minds off of everything before Dad gets here.”

Luisa watched the hesitation until she mentioned her dad, and then Rafael sighed again. “Okay, fine,” he agreed, “but _I_ get to pick what we’re doing this time. No cheesy lesbian foreign film at that little independent theater down the road.”

“Hey, I said _bowling_ or _roller-skating_! I did _not_ mention movies of _any_ kind!” Luisa dropped his hand and brushed at her skirt. “Besides, they didn’t want you coming back again. All that popcorn throwing at the screen was really obnoxious. They almost didn’t let _me_ go back, and that would’ve been a pain in the ass. That’s my favorite little theater.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have taken me there!”

“It was a good movie!”

“If you’re gay!”

Luisa stuck her tongue out at him. “Go change. Meet me down here in five minutes. And then we go do…whatever it is you’ve got your mind set on.” She grinned. “No flirting with girls or hook-ups. You are spending time with _me_.”

Rafael scowled. “Luisa, I’m married.”

“Yeah, well, so was I.” Luisa shrugged. “Look how that turned out.” Then she pushed his shoulder. “Go on. Five minutes. Just us. No telling anyone. _Go._ ”

And he did.

* * *

The anxiety pooled in the middle of Luisa’s stomach and sat there like a knot all the next day, growing as it continued and she didn’t have a spare moment to speak with Rose. The only upside to this was that, since she wasn’t drinking anymore, there wasn’t a hangover to accompany all of this or an even stronger sense of guilt and shame buried beneath a boozy haze. She told herself that was an upside, but she still wasn’t quite convinced. She hadn’t forgotten, in her rush to spend some time with her brother, that their dad arriving meant that Rose would be preoccupied with him and wouldn’t have time for her at all. With everything going on, it would have been easy to forget that, of all things, but she hadn’t. She _had_ , however, expected find time to speak with Rose that Friday morning or afternoon before the party, forgetting that time would be dedicated to her father spending time with _everyone else_ —

It wasn’t like her, to forget.

Neither was artificially inseminating the wrong woman, who turned out to be… _not_ her soulmate but to whom _she_ was a soulmate. Or, maybe, that _was_ like her. No one seemed surprised that it had happened. No one but herself.

She wasn’t going to dwell on that now. It made her want to drink more than she already did.

Her fingers ached for the cool of a bottle, her mouth for the sharp twinge of lime and salt of a margarita, her tongue for that clear burning water – vodka – that she’d found was simply the best for getting herself into that hazy state where nothing seemed like it could go wrong. And the bigger that knot in the pit of her stomach grew, the more desperate she became.

By the time of the party, Luisa wasn’t sure if she was searching more for her soulmate or for a drink, and it was hard, harder, _hardest_ to make sure that she didn’t find her way over to the outdoor bar – or the inside one – where the bartender might be convinced to give her something small to calm her nerves. Her hand gripped her white clutch a little too tightly, the cold of the gold clasp digging into the bends of her skin. For a moment, she was certain she saw Jane standing to one side in her deep blue waitresses dress with the green and turquoise accents – the watery Marbella like a second skin wrapped around her – and then there were slender fingers digging into her arm and pulling her away from the crowd. She turned to see none other than Rose’s bright blue eyes piercing her own, and she shivered – not from fear, because Rose would never hurt her, but from something else entirely that she couldn’t put a finger on.

Nerves, most likely.

“ _We need to talk_ ,” Rose hissed, her jaw clenching, her brows raising. “ _Not. Here_ ,” she continued as Luisa opened her mouth to speak. When Luisa’s mouth shut, she took a deep breath. “Take me somewhere more private.”

At most other moments, that request would cause a shiver of anticipation to run down her spine and something warm between her legs to give a pleasant throb of desire. She would be smug, place her hand on the small of her soulmate’s back, and depending on the extent of their need, they would tangle themselves together in one of a thousand different locations scattered around the Marbella – rarely the bathroom because Luisa associated it so strongly with her now ex-wife, and while she was not beholden to her (certainly not anymore), there was a certain lack of privacy, too, with bathrooms that could be disastrous in a place like this.

As it would in those moments, Luisa’s hand finds the small of Rose’s back, her fingers pressing gentle just there more as a tactile need for herself than as any sort of comfort for Rose, who did not need it. “Upstairs,” she murmured, and she tilted her chin back just enough to meet her soulmate’s eyes with a look she hoped was firm. “We can talk in my room.”

In theory, anyone who was anyone would be here, at the party. Even if Roman Zazo _could_ hear them if they were too loud, he should be down here, watching over the waitstaff. They would be completely alone.

She wasn’t sure that made her feel any better.

* * *

The door clicked shut so softly behind Rose that Luisa couldn’t hear it, even though she knew that was what it did. She dropped her clutch on the couch as she walked past it and stood in front of the overlarge window, staring down at the party below. Jane was down there somewhere, waiting on her to introduce her to her dad, and there was that ugly ice marlin that Petra had ordered to celebrate her dad’s love of fishing – that sharp dagger point of its tip straight upward into the sky like a wizard’s wand. Out of all the things Petra could have gotten, that marlin might have been the absolutely worst idea. She should have asked Petra for help. She should have—

Luisa wrapped her arms around herself, tightening her grip on her white suit jacket. Petra had wanted them all in white. A poor decision, to be sure, as it always was, but her dad did cut such an imposing figure in all white. She’d noticed that when he’d married the first in the long line of stepmother she and eventually Rafael would have, and it would be impossible to have not noticed it now. She could almost pick him out of the crowd, even from up here, even this far from the window.

“Luisa.”

She didn’t jump when Rose said her name. _She didn’t._ Because she wasn’t afraid of Rose. Never had been, never would be.

Luisa turned to face her, and as imposing as her father could be in all white, Rose seemed now. But with Rose, it had nothing to do with the clothes she wore and everything to do with the sheer presence of her, the aura of her that wafted around her when she needed – when she _wanted_ – it to – that power and terrible horror of Sin Rostro. This was only a small part of that, Luisa knew, something her soulmate couldn’t quite control, and she tried to smile. “You wanted to talk to me?”

She was never good at controlling her expression, and Rose must have seen something she didn’t like on her face. Not fear, certainly. Not that. But whatever it was, all at once, Rose gave a small huff of a sigh, and that intimidating, imposing presence was almost completely gone, her shoulders slumping with the weight of it. She stepped forward, her fingers tracing Luisa’s jaw, brushing through her hair, her eyes following them before she finally spoke. “You sent Petra to me to look over her marriage contract.”

Luisa felt herself relaxing. “That’s it? That’s all?” She laughed, the nerves easing in her stomach, and she leaned forward, her head resting on Rose’s shoulder. “I thought you wanted to talk about _Jane_ and _soulmates_ , and you just want to talk about that. I thought—” She looked back up, and she could see in Rose’s eyes that there was more. “You want to talk about that, too.”

“I want to talk about a lot of things, Lu. This is just the first of them.”

That shiver down her spine again – Rose was talking about this as though it were _business_ , as though she were detached from it, and that scared her.

_I’m not scared of Rose._

Luisa nodded, but the knot that had started to dissipate was back all too soon, the way things like that often are. She couldn’t lie to Rose, but she didn’t want to mention Petra’s affair either. Rock, meet a hard place. Her lips pressed together. “I thought, if she was really so desperate as to try and have Rafael’s child, that there might be something else in their contract that could help her.” That wasn’t a lie, not really. “I was thinking of Allison.” That was.

Rose sighed, and her hand moved from where it just touched Luisa’s face to rub her arm. If it was an attempt at comfort, it was a poor one that still felt wooden and uneasy. Luisa knew full well that it wasn’t because Rose didn’t mean it, more that her soulmate had trouble with that sort of thing at all. She appreciated the gesture. She could take comfort from the attempt. Maybe, after, there might be better forms of comfort. Rose was better at that.

“I wish you would have told me first,” Rose said, her voice smooth, gentle. “Being stuck between your brother and his wife when her contract is about to end – either way, one of them will think I’m choosing sides.”

“They don’t think that of me.”

“Because they don’t know you’re involved,” Rose snapped, her voice still that same deadly quiet, like a snake rattling its tail as a warning. “I don’t have that choice here.”

Luisa frowned. “I could tell them,” she said. “Tell them that I want them to work things out because we’re…we’re _family_ , and—”

“You’ll lose Rafael if you do that.” Rose’s words were harsh but still quiet. “And where there are marriage contracts, there is no family. Petra isn’t your friend, even if she pretends to be. She’s in this for what she gets out of it, just like your brother is. Just like I would be, if not for you.”

Luisa glanced up, trying to meet Rose’s eyes. “We’re friends. More than friends. You wouldn’t just—”

“We’re _soulmates_.” Rose held Luisa’s gaze with her own. “If we weren’t….”

She didn’t have to say it. Luisa didn’t want her to say it. Mostly, she didn’t want to hear it. “But we _are_ ,” she said, “and that’s what matters.” Her lips pressed together again, and she tried to swallow past the knot still lingering in her chest. It didn’t help. “Can we…can we talk about the other thing? I’m all anxious and nervous.” She wanted to take Rose’s hand in both of hers, but she moved away from her instead, further away from the window, wrapping her arms tight around herself again.

As soon as she was away, though, Rose was back, wrapping her arms around her from behind and resting her chin on her shoulder. It felt comforting. It felt confining. “Jane thought I was your soulmate,” she said, and with a sigh, she seemed to crumple against Luisa. “Did you tell her?”

“No, no, of course not!” Luisa tried to resist the urge to turn in Rose’s grasp so that she could face her again – _really_ , she did – but she was overwhelmed. She cupped Rose’s face with her hand the same Rose had for her only moments earlier, rubbing her thumb along her sharp cheekbone. “I wouldn’t have told her. I haven’t told _anybody_.”

“Then how did she know?”

Luisa shook her head. “I don’t know. I only told her that I _had_ a soulmate,” she looked down, trying to remember, though it had been two weeks by now – more, even, “that it was _requited_ , that my soulmate had married someone else….” Her lips pressed together in an even thinner liner, her eyes narrowing as she tried to remember. “And that I still saw you. _Her._ That was it. That was all!” She looked up, meeting Rose’s eyes again, and brushed her hand along her soulmate’s cheek. “That could be anybody! Okay, _not_ anybody,” she continued, glancing away briefly, “but there are _a lot_ of people that could be, other than you!” Her gaze met Rose’s again. “It was just a guess! She didn’t really believe that!”

Rose searched her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” This was easier. It was. “We talked about it a few days ago, after I met her family! She said that she’d brought it up, and that you’d convinced her otherwise, and—”

“You met her family?”

To Luisa, it felt as though the room had suddenly grown quite cold and frigid. She took a deep breath to still herself, but it didn’t help. “I’m her soulmate, Rose. She wanted me to meet her family. It didn’t…I don’t think it went _well_ , considering all of the circumstances – the pregnancy and everything – but it went okay.” She tried to smile, but she knew it didn’t look right because it didn’t _feel_ right. It was the kind of smile you wore when you were trying to ease your discomfort more than an expression of outright happiness.

Rose’s teeth gritted together, her jaw clenching, and her gaze refused to meet Luisa’s again.

“Rose, I’m not— I’m not _choosing her_. I don’t want to be with _her_ ; I want to be with _you_. You _know_ that!” Luisa brushed her hand through her soulmate’s crimson waves and was rewarded with those piercing blue eyes meeting hers again. “But I’m her _soulmate_. That _means_ something. I can’t just—”

All of a sudden, there was a loud sound next door, followed by the sound of voice – loud arguing, maybe, or maybe—

“ _Fuck_ , Petra, this is _not_ the right time for this,” Luisa said before she even realized what she was saying. Rose had turned to the sound, but at Luisa’s words, she turned back, her brows raising. Luisa’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hands. “I didn’t say anything!” she said, but her words were muffled by her hands.

“You said _Petra_ —”

The voices next door grew louder. Muffled as they were, it was hard to distinguish them, harder still because they seemed to be arguing.

Luisa sighed. “She’s been sleeping with Zazu. He’s next door. I can _hear_ them.” She rubbed her forehead with one hand. “I didn’t realize it was her until you were going over her marriage contract with Raf, and— Where are you going?”

Rose had left her, heading towards the door to her room. She didn’t turn as she said, “Next door. This breaks your brother’s contract and gets me out of the world of complication _you_ put me in when you had me _look over Petra’s contract_.” She glanced back just long enough to give Luisa a steely look, one that quite clearly said, _Don’t get in my way._

Luisa rushed after her.

She barely made it through the door only to find Rose standing in front of Zazu’s suite, knocking on the door in a polite, unrushed manner, as though there wasn’t anything wrong at all. “Roman?” she called. “It’s Rose. I need to talk to you. _I know you’re in there._ ”

Luisa knew that tone of voice. Or she knew something like it, knew the cold intimidation of Sin Rostro, but only in passing. Here, it was something that must have been closer to full force, and for a moment – just a moment! – she was paralyzed. Then Zazu’s door opened, and she made her way to Rose’s side, all smiles and awkward and awkward smiles.

Zazu’s eyes went first to Rose, then flicked ever so briefly, questioningly, to Luisa, and then returned to Rose. “Rose,” he said, swallowing, “Luisa. Is something wrong?” He kept the door only barely open, the slightest crack, as though it were chained shut on the other side. But it wasn’t chained – Luisa couldn’t see anything holding it in place, and when Rose pushed on it, the door opened wider for her readily enough.

“We just wanted to talk. That’s all.” Rose smiled daggers at him as she walked past him into his suite, and Luisa followed, staying with her soulmate, very aware that she was not meant to be part of whatever was going on now. Rose didn’t want her to see her like this – Luisa knew that, and instead of staying with them, she began to look for Petra, who wasn’t in the main room.

Luisa tried not to pay attention to Rose and Zazu as they talked – Rose bringing up some aspects of her business that Luisa really didn’t want to know about any more than she had to – and as she went from the living room into one of the back rooms, their voice grew muffled. As opposed to the loud arguing that had been happening only a few moments before, Rose brought the conversation down to a quiet – but no less charged – tone.

This was easier. Luisa could pretend that she was just snooping like she normally did. Not that she normally did much snooping. Not anymore, anyway.

And there, tucked away in the back room, was someone who looked just like Roman Zazo but with duct tape over his mouth and his wrists bound together.

Luisa’s eyes widened as much as the other figure’s did, and she placed a finger in front of her lips, indicating that he should be quiet, before she ripped the tape off of his mouth. “Who are you?” she asked as she moved to untie his wrists.

“Aaron Zazo, Roman’s twin brother,” the man said in a hush. “He called me here, said it was important. I don’t know why he’s doing this.”

Luisa could guess. As she unbound his wrists, she moved back to the door of the room, waiting as he stood, rubbing his skin where his wrists had been tied and were now rubbed raw. She didn’t wait for any thanks as she moved back into the living room. “Rose, I think we have a problem.” She gestured behind her, and Aaron followed her into the living room, his eyes going back and forth before finally landing, frightened, on Roman himself. “This wasn’t who I expected.”

Rose glanced over, saw Aaron, and understood.

“I wish you hadn’t seen him,” Roman said, and all at once, he moved towards Luisa, grabbing her wrists with one hand and holding a knife to her throat. “That was _very_ unfortunate.”

Rose’s eyes met Luisa’s, and Luisa gave her a little nod.

The knot in Luisa’s stomach grew to a boiling point and then dissipated. She knew what to do in these sorts of situations. She’d trained for this. Okay, mostly she’d watched _a lot_ of _Miss Congeniality_ , but that was close enough.

_All you’ve got to do is SING._

Which probably worked better because her attacker wasn’t expecting it.

In what felt like a fluid motion but probably wasn’t, Luisa elbowed Roman in the stomach, stamped her stiletto heel down on his instep, rammed her head back against his nose, and then aimed her elbow down and shoved it into his groin. In a mixture of pain and surprise, Roman dropped the knife, released her, and stumbled back towards the window. Luisa ran from him, towards Rose, but as she did so, Rose ran forward, picked up the knife, and stabbed him – through the ribs and straight into his heart. Her eyes narrowed, flashing darkly, but she wore a brilliant smile. When she removed the knife, Roman stumbled backward and through the glass window.

The lights flickered and went out.

Luisa felt a hand on her shoulder – one that she knew, even in the dark, belonged to Rose – and when the lights turned on, she knew from the screaming below that Roman had landed somewhere, likely dead. Definitely dead. She didn’t have to see his body to know that he was dead, and she didn’t want to go to the window to look. Instead, she buried her head in the crook of Rose’s neck and her shoulder, unable to stop herself from crying.

Rose ran a hand through her hair and down her back, but the action felt detached. It felt even less comforting when Luisa looked up to find Rose staring at Aaron Zazo, her eyes dark, radiating that immense aura of authority and horror, as she said, her voice still soft: “Now, let’s get our story straight before they find us. We don’t have much time.”


End file.
